Legislation and Ethics in Travel and Tourism

This report explores the legal and ethical framework of the travel and tourism industry, focusing on UK legislation and ethical dilemmas. It examines laws governing health, safety, security, equality, and consumer protection, and analyzes ethical challenges faced by organizations. The report also discusses corporate social responsibility initiatives within the sector.

LEGISLATION AND ETHICS
IN TRAVEL AND TOURISM

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK1.............................................................................................................................................1
AC1.1 Legal and regulatory framework of English legal system, explaining court system and
sources of law.........................................................................................................................1
AC1.2 Legislation and international conventions used to regulate sea, surface and air transport
sectors.....................................................................................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
AC2.1 Analysing the impact of health, safety and security legislation for your organisation4
AC2.2 Equality legislation in legal system while recruiting and managing employees........6
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................7
AC3.1 Contract laws associated with travel and tourism sector............................................7
AC3.2 Consumer protection legislation to be considered to avoid civil or criminal liability7
TASK 4 ...........................................................................................................................................8
AC4.1 Identify and analyse ethical dilemmas faced by an organisation and ways to deal with
them .......................................................................................................................................8
AC4.2 Identify the corporate social responsibility for the chosen organisation....................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Legislation is defined as a law which have been formulated by government or other
governing bodies. Legislations are passed to authorize, regulate, sanction or restrict a particular
action or decision. Ethics involves defending, recommending and systematizing concepts related
with wrong & right conduct. Hospitality sector is a part of big enterprise called as travel and
tourism sector (Bianchi and Stephenson, 2013). The main aim of this sector is to provide all the
desired and expected services to the travellers. This report will cover different laws, legislations
and aspects related with travel and tourism. It will include legal and regulatory framework of
legal system, court system and sources of law. Beside this, sea, surface and air laws related to
carriage of passenger are discussed. Impact of security legislation, principles of health and safety
are discussed. Also, different legislations related to equality are discussed. Contract legislations
and consumer protection legislation in respect with travel and tourism will be discussed. At last,
ethical dilemmas and CSR associated with travel & tourism will be mentioned.
TASK1
AC1.1 Legal and regulatory framework of English legal system, explaining court system and
sources of law
Travel and tourism sector is required to offer services to travellers and visitors which
carry out a journey with the purpose of business, leisure or other activities. Thomas cook is a
renowned tour operator organisation which produce various travel related services to their
customers. Below are mentioned some legislations which must be followed by company to
perform their activities in an authorise manner. Some of these laws will help unhappy clients to
show their unsatisfactoriness towards the service offered by travel & tourism businesses:
Legal framework
It is associated with a system which includes different laws and agreement formulated by
government. Avoiding these framework can results the company in paying high fines and
penalties. Development of Tourism Act, 1969:- This act aims to provide financial assistance to
hotel, restaurants and other infrastructure so that appropriate services can be offered to
customers. This Act aims to provide establishment for British tourist authority along with
tourist boards of Scotland, Wales and England with the duty of promoting tourism
1

development in Great Britain. This Act also enables provisions for hotel registrations and
other places where sleeping accommodation is given to customers.
 Transport Act 1980 & 1985:- This law governs both private and national transportation
companies involving services for associated routes. It gives provisions regarding
deregulated and privatised bus services in every location of Great Britain. This act was
formulated as a response for growing concerns related with environmental issues which
takes place due to private transportation. This act aims to reduce the amount which is
paid by public for commercial objects.
Regulatory framework
It involve authorities which creates legal framework to govern actions associated with
companies associated with travel and tourism sector (Botterill, Pennings and Mainil, 2013).
 Office of Rail and Road: It is a non ministerial department which is responsible for
safety and economy regulations associated with railways in Britain and economic
monitoring of England's highways. This governmental department operates rail network
by managing its funding requirements and activities for each control period.
 Health and Safety Executive: This is a UK based governmental agency which have
responsibility of encouraging, regulating and enforcing workplace welfare, safety, health
etc. within Britain. This non departmental public body investigates small and big
industrial accidents so that victims can be compensated desirably.
Sources of Law
In respect with UK, four principle sources of Law are common law, European
convention, legislation and European law. No single document can incorporates these laws
together. These Laws are mentioned below: Legislation: It involves different acts which are formed by UK parliament i.e. House of
Lords and House of commons. It contains authority over entire UK. For ex, Human
Rights Act, 1998 is formulated by UK legislation. It aims to add the rights associated
with European convention on human right in UK law. Common law: Legal system associated with Wales and England is under common law. In
these regions, decisions taken by court are also considered. For example, Treason Act
1351, Black Act, 1723, Murder Act 1751 came under this law.
2

 European Law: Earlier UK was under European Union but now it doesn't posses any
precedence over UK laws (Forno and Garibaldi, 2015). For instance, European
communities Act 1972, came under these laws.
 European convention: UK is a country in Europe continent due to which all UK courts
have to follow Human right Act, 1998 to protect the rights of individuals residing in UK.
Court Laws
In UK, there are four kinds of courts which deals with issues related to travel and tourism
sector. For dealing with criminal and civil cases, Magistrate court & House of Lords are
responsible. For cases related to land, country court is given authority and power. For criminal
cases, crown court is given power and jurisdiction.
AC1.2 Legislation and international conventions used to regulate sea, surface and air transport
sectors.
Air, sea and surface transportation forms an essential place in travel and tourism sector.
These transportation types helps the passengers and traveller to move form one destination to
another destination in a comfortable manner by offering them desired facilities and services.
Different legislations and international conventions which must be considered by business
operating in travel and tourism sector such as Thomas Cook are mentioned below:
Surface Law
This section includes different regulations and laws which are associated with railways
& roadways transportation which must be followed by Thomas Cook to achieve legal
compliance. Carriage of Passenger by road Act protects the right of passengers on board. Under
this legislation, all damages associated with mental or physical aspect of an individuals will be
considered (Fowler, Forsdick and Kostova, 2013). Also, loss or misplacement of luggage comes
under this act.
Office of road and rail
Regulation related with Surface Law is Office of Road and Rail which is a government
department that ensures the safety and economic regulations of railways in UK and economic
monitoring of highways in England. This regulation was formulated by Railways and Transport
Safety Act, 2003 to replace rail regulator.
Sea Law
3

It include different Laws which are formulated by government in UK to secure the rights
of passengers which are travelling though sea routes. Also, shipping security and safety,
environmental factors are also comes under this Act. SOLAS i.e. international convention for
Safety of life of sea is a maritime treaty which adjusts safety standards for merchant ships.
Beside this, The Athens convention, 1974 which defines that it is the liability of ferry or ship if
any kind of damages are faced by passengers during travelling. Along with it, ship or ferry have
to compensate according to the damages.
Maritime and Coastguard agency
In this regard, Maritime and Coastguard agency is an executive department in UK that
works to save the lives at sea. This agency is also responsible to implement international and
British Maritime Law & other safety policies. Beside this, it has a duty to rescue helicopter
operations and perform land based research since 2015.
Air Law
These laws are concerned with air travel, flight and other associated business and legal
concerns. One important law in this regard is The Warsaw convention of 1929 specifies the
rules associates with international carriage and related documentation. It also involves death
compensation for passengers so that claim against injury can be achieved. There is another Act
i.e. Five freedom Act, 1994 which covers all the regulations and rules associated with landing
across territory for passenger landing, non-traffic, traffic and cargo and specifies official
territories within them (Gabor, Conţiu and Oltean, 2012).
Civil Aviation Authority
Regulation associated with Air law is Civil Aviation Authority which is a statutory
corporation that regulates and oversees different aspects related with civil aviation in UK.
Responsibilities associated with this regulatory agency is to supervise the problems of license
pilots and equipment testing. This authority also manage the regulations related with security
standards involving vetting of personnels within Aviation industry. Beside this, it also oversees
the national protection scheme for customers if a Air travel company faces business failure.
TASK 2
AC2.1 Analysing the impact of health, safety and security legislation for your organisation
4

To
Mr Fred,
Elegant Hotel, UK
There are different kind of legislations that are formulated to protect the health and safety needs
of individuals which are residing in UK. In this regard, companies in UK dealing in travel and
tourism industry have to follow The health and safety at work Act, 1974 in which employees
are provided security at workplace. It is governed by Health and Safety Executive which
emphasize on assuring that every firm have to follow the guidelines associated with the
commission. Different legislations associated with health and safety which must be considered
by manager of Elegant hotel are mentioned below:
 Health and safety at work Act, 1974: It is formulated with the aim of governing health
and safety of employees working in Great Britain. According to this law, an employer in
Elegant hotel, must provide appropriate and safe working environment to its employees
so that all the work will be carried out in an appropriate manner (Gibson, 2016).
 General data protection regulation, 2018: This regulation is agreed by European
council and European parliament to replace Data Protection Act 1995. It is a primary
law in UK which regulates how organisations will protect personal data of citizens.
 Duty of care and vicarious liability: In this situation, one person is considered liable if
some miss-happening takes place with an individual. In case of elegant hotel, employers
will be considered liable if some bad situation arise.
 Occupiers Liability Act, 1984: As per this law, the property owner needs to define the
potential harms and danger which can take place within a premise. Also, the building or
corporation owner will be responsible for all the damage and problems (Hudson and
Miller, 2012).
5

AC2.2 Equality legislation in legal system while recruiting and managing employees
To
Mr Fred,
Elegant Hotel
Equality and discrimination are two opposite terms which are complementary with each other.
Equality emphasize on treating every individual equal irrespective of their religion, gender,
caste, nationality etc. Discrimination is the practice in which one or more people are treated
differently due to their distinct religion, race or sex. These kinds of difference can considerably
impact the working environment of an organisation. To avoid these kinds of issues, there are
some legislations that must be followed by Elegant hotel. Some of these are mentioned below:
Equality and human right commission: EHRC aims to monitor rights of individuals and
protects equality on 9 grounds which are religion, race, sex, age disability, maternity, belief,
pregnancy, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, civil partnership and marriage partnership.
It is an executive public body which is sponsored by Cabinet office.
Equality Act, 2010: This law aims to protect the people form different kind of discriminations
which prevails in workplace and society. It replaces earlier laws and Act which are related with
Anti-discrimination. This single Act helps in strengthening and protecting the individuals from
different kinds of discriminations. It will replace earlier Acts like Sex discrimination Act, 1975,
Race relation Act, 1976 and Disability discrimination Act, 1995. With the introduction of this
Act, no employer can discriminate its employees or customers due to some natural
abnormalities faced by them. If employer in Elegant hotel will do that then they must have to
pay heavy penalties. It also contain clauses about harassment and forced behaviour. No
employer in Elegant hotel can misbehave or discriminate an employee on the basis of their sex.
In case if this happens, company may have to face high penalisation.
Human Rights Act, 1998: According to this right, every individual must be treated equally with
appropriate respect, fairness and dignity. It includes people from all age groups and
backgrounds such as young, poor, rich or old. Equal treatment will allow the employees in
Elegant hotel to perform their business operations in an appropriate manner (Lashley, 2016).
6

TASK 3
AC3.1 Contract laws associated with travel and tourism sector
Contract is an agreement which is signed between two or more than two parties so that
common objectives and targets can be achieved desirably. It includes all the required information
and obligation which are imposed by government and courts. In case of travel and tourism, a
contract is signed between customers and company in which all specifications associated with
tour such as departure time, arrival time, information about destination, exchange service price
etc. are mentioned.
Consumer right Act, 2015: It is an Act passed by parliament of UK which replaces
earlier laws associated with consumer protection and also provides new rights and remedies to
the people. This act aims to replace Sales of goods Act, 1979 which regulates the sale of
products which are sold and brought in UK. It bind both parties to make transactions associated
with transferring products form seller to customers. This is performed with the help of price of
commodity. One instance is that Thomas Cook can't use barter system to manage transactions
with customers. It also replace Unfair Contract Terms Act, 1977 which is passed by parliament
in UK and states that no contract will include those terms and conditions which can result in
negligence and breach of contract. For ex, if travel and tourism organisation such as Thomas
Cook promises high quality services but fails to provide them then company will have to face
heavy penalties and fines to the victim customers.
AC3.2 Consumer protection legislation to be considered to avoid civil or criminal liability
There are different customer legislations which are framed by government in UK with an
aim of securing the interest and rights of customers & assures that these rights will not be
violated or neglected by travel agents. It includes:
Package travel regulations 1992: This law is applicable on businesses which are
associated with selling of package holidays to their clients. Due to this, they must have to share
accurate information about the services which will be offered to the customers and customers
right will be protected.
Package travel holidays 1992: This law is imposed on three components like
accommodation, tourist services and tourist services. If tour operator will not follow these acts,
they must have to pay high penalty (Sethna and Doull, 2012).
7

CPUTR 2008: It is abbreviated as unfair trading regulations 2008 in which the interest
and rights if customers will be protected from any unfair trading practices. If interest of
customers will be harmed then guilty will have to pay £4000 and for repeated Act, amount will
be £18000
As per the Consumer Protection Act, 1987 duties of suppliers and right of consumers are
clearly specified. It defines the legal responsibilities of suppliers to offer proper information with
accurate details of the goods and products. It also restricts the unfair business practices which
involves the following:
 Restricts supply of poor quality products
 Defining product liability
 Restriction on Unfair trade practices
TASK 4
AC4.1 Identify and analyse ethical dilemmas faced by an organisation and ways to deal with
them
Ethics refers to the moral values of individuals which guides their behaviour and
attitudes. Whereas business ethics is the study of problems, situations, decisions and activities of
business in which the issues of the firm can be addressed. Business needs to manage their
business ethics such as honesty, trustworthy and reliability so that these would not impact the
actions and judgements of company in addressing the issues and problems of business
(Springerorno and Garibaldi, 2015)x.
Ethical Dilemmas: These are situations which can confuse the people in terms of what is
right or wrong. For example: In a case of two friend, One get the drink at lower prices then the
other people because the bar tender is friend of that person in a hotel bar. In this case, both of the
friends are wrong as partiality must be done by the bar tender then the prices which are already
set by bar owner. Thomas cook is also facing several ethical dilemmas which must be resolved
by developing suitable strategies in order to overcome those dilemmas. These ethical dilemmas
and the strategies for overcoming these dilemmas are given below:
Issues:
 Thomas cook can face the ethical dilemma in that of gender pay gap, Thomas cook is
providing the high salary to the male then the females which is impacting their tourism
8

business. This can negatively impact the growth and development of Thomas cook. The
dilemma is that due to economical instability of government which is impacting the brand
image of the firm which will also impact the operations of business (Springerorno and
Garibaldi, 2015). Another ethical dilemma is that the hotel asks for the proper documentation of people
from several countries such as Bangladesh, Vietnam as these are weak nations. This can
also impact the business operations and brand image which will also impact the
profitability.
Overcome:
For overcoming these ethical dilemmas, it is necessary for the Thomas cook to
understand the laws and regulations of the country in which they are performing their operations.
The recommendations for overcoming these above discussed dilemmas are given below:
 The firm needs to follow the minimum wages act and should ensure that the males and
females both are performing the same quantity of work so that the salary can be provided
according to their work not based on the gender (Stephenson and Bianchi, 2014).
 Another issue can be overcomes by the Thomas cook which is documentation process of
people coming from Bangladesh and Vietnam through taking support from the
government of respective nation. The company can contact to the government officials
and can implement a technological system in which the details of the people of respective
nation can be collected online without checking the documents which will also save the
time of the firm.
The Thomas cook needs to follow these recommendations so that the ethical dilemmas
can be resolved which will also help the company in improving the brand image as well as the
trust of their customers. This will help the company in sustaining in the market for along period
of time.
AC4.2 Identify the corporate social responsibility for the chosen organisation
Corporate social responsibility is defined as the self regulating model of business which
benefits an organisation to be socially responsible for itself, public and the stakeholders. It
involves activities like equal opportunity, practising sustainable development, environment
protection etc. organisations associated with travel and tourism are required to identify the
requirements of customers in a desired manner. In this regard, business related with tourism can
9

communicate with local or regional government so that the needs and preferences of customers
can be determined in an appropriate manner. By this, company can accomplish its duties towards
the community and society in a desired manner.
These companies can determine the objectives and targets of company so that environmental
sources, social and valuable heritages can be protected in a proper manner. Main objectives
associated with these businesses will be to domain and protect the natural resources so that
tourism sector can be boosted in a direct way. Other than that, the objective of enterprises should
also focus on donations and charity so that the needy people can get considerable support from
these large scale operating companies. Hence, CSR can offer support and care to endangered and
existing species, boosting of cost effective rates so that cultural and social values associated with
a region can be protected. For accomplishing these responsibilities and duties a firm would
require the engagement of employees and money for the charity purpose (Swanson and Brothers,
2012). In this globalised era, every firm is require to offer CSR so that a good brand image can
be sustained in market. This will also allow Thomas Cook to gain competitive advantage over
rival companies in an advantageous manner.
CONCLUSION
From above mentioned report, it is concluded that travel and tourism industry is changing
at a fast pace. There are different regulations and rules associated with travel and tourism
department so that no business organisation can harm the welfare of employees and customers
which are dealing with the company. These legislations will protect the individuals form
discriminations based on religion, gender, age and so on. Ethical dilemmas if not considered
properly can harm the business in a negative way.
10

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Bianchi, R. V. and Stephenson, M. L., 2013. Deciphering tourism and citizenship in a globalized
world. Tourism Management. 39. pp.10-20.
Botterill, D., Pennings, G. and Mainil, T. eds., 2013. Medical tourism and transnational health
care.
Forno, F. and Garibaldi, R., 2015. Sharing economy in travel and tourism: The case of home-
swapping in Italy. Journal of Quality Assurance in Hospitality & Tourism. 16(2).
pp.202-220.
Fowler, C., Forsdick, C. and Kostova, L. eds., 2013. Travel and ethics: Theory and practice (Vol.
7). Routledge.
Gabor, M. R., Conţiu, L. C. and Oltean, F. D., 2012. A comparative analysis regarding European
tourism competitiveness: emerging versus developed markets. Procedia Economics and
Finance. 3. pp.361-366.
Gibson, S., 2016. Mobilizing hospitality: The ethics of social relations in a mobile world.
Routledge.
Hudson, S. and Miller, G., 2012. 13 Ethical considerations in sustainable tourism. Global
tourism, p.248.
Lashley, C., 2016. Business ethics and sustainability. Research in Hospitality Management. 6(1).
pp.1-7.
Lovelock, B. and Lovelock, K., 2013. The ethics of tourism: Critical and applied perspectives.
Routledge.
Sethna, C. and Doull, M., 2012. Accidental tourists: Canadian women, abortion tourism, and
travel. Women's Studies. 41(4). pp.457-475.
Springerorno, F. and Garibaldi, R., 2015. Sharing economy in travel and tourism: The case of
home-swapping in Italy. Journal of Quality Assurance in Hospitality & Tourism. 16(2).
pp.202-220.
Stephenson, M. L. and Bianchi, R., 2014. Tourism and citizenship: Rights, freedoms and
responsibilities in the global order. Routledge.
Swanson, J. R. and Brothers, G. L., 2012. Tourism policy agenda setting, interest groups and
legislative capture. International Journal of Tourism Policy. 4(3). pp.206-221.
Online:
The Human Rights Act. 2018. [Online]. Available
through:<https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/human-rights/human-rights-act>
11