Legislation and Ethics in Travel and Tourism Sector

This document discusses the legislation and ethics in the travel and tourism sector. It covers the impact of health, safety, and security legislation, as well as the legislation related to equality. It also explores the ethical dilemmas faced by the industry and the importance of corporate social responsibility.

Legislation and Ethics in
Travel and Tourism Sector

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
Covered in PPT...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................1
2.1 Impact of the principle of health, safety and security legislation on the travel and tourism
sector of UK................................................................................................................................1
2.2 Legislation that relates to the equality with reference to a UK tour operator and travel
agency.........................................................................................................................................3
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................5
LO3.............................................................................................................................................5
3.1 Letter or Email to travel assistant explaining contract legislations.......................................5
3.2................................................................................................................................................7
Covered in poster .......................................................................................................................7
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................7
LO4.............................................................................................................................................7
4.1 Ethical dilemmas faced by travel and tourism sector............................................................7
4.2 CSR in travel and tourism business......................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Tourism industry is most important sector that has its interconnection with the other
business sectors in regulation of business operations (Higham, J. and et.al., 2016). Organisation
working in tourism sector also needs to consider various important legislations that relates to
undertaking business operations and ethical laws as well as principles that governs travel and
tourism business operations. In present context, as travel law's consultant, legal and regulatory
structure that governs in the travel and tourism sector has been discussed along with the laws
with reference to England and Wales. Further, Thomas cook Ltd, is an integrated travel agent
which operates branches throughout the UK and republic Ireland and employs around 19000
people. Impacts of principles of health, safety and security legislations on the travel and tourism
sector have been evaluated with reference to Thomas Cook Ltd as its manager (Adinolfi and
Ivanovic, 2015). Apart from this, Some important legislations of consumer protection are also
taken in to consideration along with the contract legislations. In relation to the customers of
travel and tourism. At last, as a sustainability manager of Thomas cook ethical dilemmas faced
by have been analysed which are faced by travel and tourism sector along with policies related to
the corporate social responsibilities in order to publish in travel and tourism magazine (Lowry,
2017).
TASK 1
Covered in PPT
TASK 2
2.1 Impact of the principle of health, safety and security legislation on the travel and tourism
sector of UK
Various principles are taken
into consideration by the tour
and travel company that will
affect its operational ability in
a very significant way. Various
legislations are developed to
ensure the safety, security and
better health of employees as
It will include following
measures for the better
management of operations of
cited firm such as:
 The workplace of
organisation must be
safe and well
maintained to ensure
Besides this, it is employer's
liability to safeguard the
employee's at workplace,
provide proper first aid in case
of injury and give proper
information to workforce in
case of emergency. The
employees must also use
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well as customers in a very
significant manner. Various
legal obligations and laws such
as Health and Safety at Work
Act 1974 will help the
organisation like Thomas
Cook to take into
consideration the various types
of measures that will help
company to safeguard its
employees and customers.
the security of
employees.
 The workforce must be
provided with proper
training to manage any
kind of issues related to
health and safety.
 The communication
and accommodation
facilities must be
proper in Thomas
Cook. The entry and
exit routes must be
well maintained for
easy handling of
condition in case of an
emergency.
 Various safety
measures like fire
extinguishers, fire
alarms, proper lightings
and emergency exits
should be available at
the workplace.
proper and adequate safety
equipment while working and
use them to safeguard
themselves as well as the
clients or tourists.
Under Occupier Liability Act
1984, the employer and his
firm is liable to take into
consideration suitable safety
measures, precautions and
maintain various kinds of
safety standards that are
The Data Protection Act 1988
will help employer to
safeguard the individual right
to maintain privacy of
employee as well as the
customers at workplace. It will
help the firm to safeguard
Duty of care is a measure
where the manufacturer or the
service provider is responsible
to look after the safety of the
customers. This measure is
used in the organisation to
keep a check on the quality of
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implemented by Thomas
Cook. This will help the firm
to ensure safety of its
employees and clients from
any external factors such as
trespassers. This will help the
firm to avoid any kind of
breach in security of cited
firm. The employer firm
should place proper warning
signs at risky places in order to
make people aware and
safeguard them in a better
way.
personal information and avoid
its sharing without the consent
of customers.
services provided by the cited
firm or its employee to the
customer. The vicarious
liabilities of the organisation
will help the organisation to
take in consideration proper
measures to safeguard the
employee's and the
employee's.
2.2 Legislation that relates to the equality with reference to a UK tour operator and travel agency
Various legal obligations, acts and measures are taken and followed by the firm to maintain
health, safety and security standards at travel and tourism organisation in UK. Some major legal
acts that are taken into the consideration by Thomas Cook to maintain equality and avoid any
kind of discrimination are as follows:-
 Sex Discrimination
Act 1975: This act will
look after the
avoidance of the
gender or sex
discrimination at the
workplace. This act
will look after that all
the employees, be it
 Race Discrimination
Act 1976: As Thomas
Cook is a multinational
company, it will be
operating in various
countries with
employees and clients
of various races and
cultural background.
 Employee Protection
and Consolidation
Act 1998: This law or
act helps the employees
to safeguard
themselves during the
employment period. It
provides the employees
to ask for the proper
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male or female, must
be provided with the
equal opportunities and
chances to develop and
grow in the company.
This act promotes the
equality and eradicate
any sort of
discrimination at the
workplace.
Thus, the
implementation of this
law restricts the
organisation from
practising any sort of
racial discrimination
and difference on the
basis of nationality,
colour, religion or race
at the workplace. This
will promote equality
in the organisation.
safety measures from
the employer at the
work place.
 Disability
Discrimination Act
1995: This act will
make liable to the
employer firm like
Thomas Cook to avoid
any sort of the
discrimination based
on the disability of an
individual person and
helps them to get
equally treated like a
normal individual
employee. The
disability may be on
 Employment Act
2002: This will look
after the effective
resolution of the
various kinds of issues
or the conflicts at the
workplace and helps
the employer to protect
the rights of the various
employees at the
workplace. It looks
after the minimum
wages and the
compensation that are
required to be provided
 Human Right Act
1998: This act is
established and
implemented in the UK
to safeguard the basic
rights of an individual
with regard to the
nationality, religion,
race, language and
gender as a human
being in the society.
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physical, mental or
psychological basis.
Thus, this act provides
the proper rights to the
person with disability.
by the company to its
employees.
The major purpose of the key laws and regulations are to safeguard the employees along with
the customers and their rights. According to the legislation and laws of EU, these laws and
regulations are mandatory for the employer and its employees to ensure the better health and
safety measures, fair handling of the trade relations and maintaining the various aspects such as
equality and diversity, protecting the personal data of the employees and the customers
maintaining various employment laws on local as well as national level by the cited firm.
TASK 3
LO3
3.1 Letter or Email to travel assistant explaining contract legislations
Letter
To,
Travel Assistant,
Thomas Cook
London, UK.
Subject: Explanation of various contract legislations.
Sir/Ma'am
This is to be notify that in recent, one of the customer was provided with the tour package
by you and was not satisfied by the services, questioning the information provided to him at
time of booking, This is, in one form, is a violation of the contract law. A contract is the legal
5

agreement between the service provider and the customer which act as the obligation for both
the parties and is required to be followed. It is important as it keeps the customer's and the
travel company inbound with each other. Besides this, it gives the client, a proper right to claim
a compensation in case the promised services are not fulfilled.
The contract is formed under the Contract Law, which consists of the various elements
such as offer, acceptance, consideration, relationship, terms and conditions.
Various Acts are been implemented in a contract such as:
 Supply of Goods and Provision of services Contract: This contract will ensure that
the service provider provides the suitable goods and the services as discussed in the
contract to meet customers expectations.
 Holiday Contract: It includes the things that are been agreed by the individual by the
tour provider or travel agent. It includes the validity of all the information that is been
provided by the service provider in the contract.
The valid contract will lead to the better management of the resources and meeting the
needs and demands of the customers while an unfair contract will create confusion and
conflicts.
Various legislative measures are been developed such as:
 Trades Description Act 1968: This law prohibits the traders or the service provider to
use the false practices and deceits to cheat the customer such as various indications like
price or quality of goods.
 Consumer protection Act 1987: This will look after the various measures or the factors
that helps the company to safeguard the consumer, while on a tour. It protects the
consumer or the tourist from any sort of malpractices, unsafe products and unhealthy
locations.
 The Package Travel, Package Holidays and Package Tours Regulations
1992: This regulation will look after the safeguarding of the rights of the tourists by keeping a
check on the details of the Travel, holidays or Tours packages that are been provided by the
service provider like Thomas Cook.
 Tort of negligence and nuisance: It includes the various form of effects that will occur
when the service provider will fail to provide the proper services to customer or they
face any sort of disturbance in the services.
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 Duty of care and Vicarious liability: It will include the various sort of the cares and
the measures that are been taken into the consideration by the organisation in order to
provide the better services to the customers or the tourists by the tour operator. The
different types of liabilities will help the company to meet the requirements of the
customers or the passengers in a better way, leading to the rise in their trust and the
satisfaction level.
Besides this the tourists and the service providers are liable under the accommodation
services like Hotels or inn. And is look after under the Hotel Proprietors Act 1956 and food
hygiene regulations under the Food Act 1984, giving the clients a proper right to refuse to a
service or food, if they are not satisfied.
Hope you will look after it.
Yours Sincerely
Andrew Cooper
3.2
Covered in poster
TASK 4
LO4
4.1 Ethical dilemmas faced by travel and tourism sector
Ethical dilemmas faced by Thomas Cook and British Airways.
The ethical dilemmas are the issues that are been faced by the tours and travel industry should
be treated and tackled by the organisations like Thomas Cook and British Airways. The
industry is in the constant interaction with the various sort of customers, service providers and
tour operators (Adams and et.al., 2015). Thus, there are more chances for the organisation to get
into the various ethical dilemmas such as:
 Many times the tourists face the various sort of discrimination based on the colour,
nationality and race, which is unethical and should be avoided by the service provider or
the legal travel agents (Tse and Tse, 2015).
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 The language barrier is also one of the biggest issue that is been faced by the tourists
while working in the travel and the tourism organisations like Thomas Cook and British
Airways, in order to gain a better understanding of the various needs and demands of the
consumers or tourists (McCartney, 2015).
 The cultural differences may also lead to the rise in the confusion or conflict between
the local citizens and the tourist which must be effectively handled by the travel and tour
operator (Moghavvemi and et.al., 2017).
 Besides this the effective management of the needs and requirements of the tourists and
providing them with the better accommodation, food and travelling facility in the
reasonable cost paid by them, as per the contract and without any sort of hidden
expenses (Tribe, 2015).
 Apart from this, the tour operators must also take into the consideration, various sort of
environmental and socio economic factors of the locality in order to manage the various
ethical issues and dilemmas that are been faced by the cited organisation (Bohn, 20155).
The effective management of the ethical issues that are been faced by the organisations like
Thomas Cook and British Airways will help the organisation to meet the requirements of the
company in a better way. This will not only help the companies or the organisation to tackle the
demands of the tourists but also help them to build a better relationship with them, increasing
their trust and loyalty towards the service provider, which will help the company to provide
better services and gain a better profitability (Font and McCabe, 2017). Apart from this, it will
help the firms of the travel and tourism sector to opt the suitable measures in order to manage
the mass tourism and maintain the standard of the various morals and ethical values.
4.2 CSR in travel and tourism business
The CSR stands for “ Corporate Social responsibility”. It is the practice in which a
company or an industry will be under the obligation to have a duty or give back some benefit to
the society as their responsibility towards the society (Mutalib and et.al., 2016). The company or
the industry will include various measures like the use of eco friendly products, making
contribution towards the society or the country, managing the waste and pollution and working
for its effective reduction or removing the cultural restrictions and giving the proper exposure to
the local people on the global level (Verhey, Baum and Hai, 2016).
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The practice of CSR will help the employees of the organisation to meet the requirements
of the company in a better way. It leads to the development of the better commitments and the
processes that leads to the significant management of the various operations in the travel and
tours businesses like Thomas Cook and British Airways, that contributes to the better execution
and management of the CSR. Some major reforms and the step taken by the cited firms are as
follows:
 Education and employability: The Thomas Cook and BA will look after the better
scope of providing the education and employment facility to the local citizens in order to
make them unable to meet the requirements of the people or the tourists. Especially in the
rural and the tribal areas, the company will provide proper education to the people to
make them aware of their rights and interact with the tourists (Paraskou and George,
2017).
 Health and Sanitation: The cited firm will look after the proper management of the
sanitation and hygiene at the various tourist spots for the ease of the tourist as well as the
local people. This will help in keeping the environment clean and attract higher number
of tourists (Hall, Gossling and Scott, 2015).
 Provide funds: Many times, the cited firms also provide the suitable funds or monetary
helps in order to develop a place as the tourist spot that may attract the large number of
tourists.
All this measures helps the travel and tourism firms to get the better sustainability in the market
and accountability towards the tourists or the customers. This lead to the rise in the level of
business conduct and cause a better involvement of the various communities that will add perks
to the tourism industry (Becker, 2016). Besides this, it gives rise to better corporate governance,
maintenance of the environment and the human rights and improving the relation between the
consumers and the employee's at the market place.
CONCLUSION
Thus, from the report, it can be concluded that various legal obligations are been taken
into the consideration by the travels and tourism industry. The report focused on the framework
of the travel and tourism industry in UK with evaluation of various health, legal and security
measures and legal obligations for discrimination and equality. Various contract legislations are
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been taken into consideration and the ethical dilemmas are been discussed. Apart from this, the
CSR of the travel and tourism industry is been taken into the consideration.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Guttentag, D., 2015. Airbnb: disruptive innovation and the rise of an informal tourism
accommodation sector. Current issues in Tourism. 18(12). pp.1192-1217.
Becker, E., 2016. Overbooked: The exploding business of travel and tourism. Simon and
Schuster.
Holden, A., 2016. Environment and tourism. Routledge.
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.
Sheehan, M., Grant, K. and Garavan, T., 2018. Strategic talent management: a macro and micro
analysis of current issues in hospitality and tourism. Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism
Themes, (just-accepted). pp.00-00.
Hall, C.M., Gossling, S. and Scott, D. eds., 2015. The Routledge handbook of tourism and
sustainability. Routledge.
Paraskou, A. and George, B.P. eds., 2017. Legal and Economic Considerations Surrounding
Reproductive Tourism: Emerging Research and Opportunities: Emerging Research and
Opportunities. IGI Global.
Verhey, B., Baum, T. and Hai, N.T.T., 2016. Locating child rights within the emerging CSR
narrative in travel and tourism: Reflections from a Vietnam pilot study. CAUTHE 2016:
The Changing Landscape of Tourism and Hospitality: The Impact of Emerging Markets
and Emerging Destinations. pp.681.
Mutalib, N.S.A. and et.al., 2016. Medical tourism: ethics, risks and benefits. Ind J Pharm Educ
Res.
Font, X. and McCabe, S., 2017. Sustainability and marketing in tourism: its contexts, paradoxes,
approaches, challenges and potential. Journal of Sustainable Tourism. 25(7). pp.869-883.
Bohn, D., 2015. A Review of “Managing ethical consumption in tourism/Tourism and social
marketing”, edited by Clare Weeden and Karla Boluk/C. Michael Hall: Abingdon,
Routledge; 2014, xviii+ 248 pp.,£ 145 (hardback), ISBN 978-0-415-71676-5/Abingdon,
Routledge, 2014, xiii+ 289 pp., 54.78(paperback),ISBN978-0-415-57666-6; 166.00
(hardback), ISBN 978-0-415-57665-9.
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de Carvalho, I.C.R., 2017. Gendering the tourism sector: Women managers' experiences in hotel
and travel businesses in Portugal (Doctoral dissertation, Universidade de Aveiro
(Portugal)).
Moghavvemi, S. and et.al., 2017. Connecting with prospective medical tourists online: A cross-
sectional analysis of private hospital websites promoting medical tourism in India,
Malaysia and Thailand. Tourism Management. 58. pp.154-163.
Tribe, J., 2015. The economics of recreation, leisure and tourism. Routledge.
McCartney, G., 2015. To be or not to be? Addressing the ethical void in Macao’s tourism and
casino development. Tourism Review. 70(2). pp.150-162.
Tse, T.S. and Tse, Q.K., 2015. The legal aspects of “zero-fare” tour in shopping tourism: A case
of Chinese visitors in Hong Kong. Journal of China Tourism Research. 11(3). pp.297-
314.
Adams, K. and et.al., 2015. Medical Tourism in the Tropics: New Regulation is Needed to
Tackle Equity and Quality Concerns in Barbados.
Lowry, L.L. ed., 2017. The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Travel and Tourism. SAGE
Publications.
Adinolfi, M.C. and Ivanovic, M.I.L.E.N.A., 2015. Recounting social tourism development in
South Africa. African Journal for Physical Health Education, Recreation and
Dance. 21(Supplement 2). pp.1-12.
Higham, J. and et.al., 2016. Climate change, tourist air travel and radical emissions
reduction. Journal of Cleaner Production. 111, pp.336-347.
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