Exploring Legislation and Ethics in the Travel and Tourism Sector

This essay provides an overview of the key legislations and ethical considerations within the travel and tourism sector, focusing on their impact on companies like Thomas Cook. It discusses the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, which mandates a safe working environment for employees, and various anti-discrimination laws such as the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, the Race Discrimination Act 1976, and the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, all aimed at promoting equality in the workplace. The essay also addresses the Data Protection Act 1988, emphasizing the importance of protecting customer data, and explores the concepts of duty of care and vicarious liability, holding employers responsible for their employees' actions. Furthermore, it highlights the positive impact of these legislations on enhancing brand image, fostering customer trust, and ensuring employee safety and well-being within the UK travel and tourism industry. Desklib provides access to more solved assignments and study materials for students.

Legislation and Ethics in Travel and Tourism
There are number of legislation which are formed in order to protect the individual's health and safety need. In
travel and tourism sector the companies are required to follow “The Health and safety at work Act 1974” in order to
provide security to employees at workplace. This law is generally governed by the Health and Safety Commission
regulator authority which focuses toward ensuring that each company must follow all the guidelines given by this
commission. Thomas Cook is required to prepare training material for its staff member related to following
legislations related to health and safety:
 Health and safety at work Act, 1974: - This Act is formulated with an aim to govern the health and
safety of workers at workplace in Great Britain. As per this law employer must provide its employees an
environment which is secure and doesn't harm them so that they can work freely without any fear.
 Occupiers Liability Act, 1984: - According to this law, the owner of the building must keep people aware
about the danger or harm that may happen at their premises and also take responsibility if anything wrong
happen to them.
 Data Protection Act, 1988: - This law was formulating with an aim to keep the personal information of
customers protected. A company must ensure its customers about the security of their personal details so
that operations can be performed in an effective manner.
 Duty of Care and Vicarious liability: - It refers to the situation where one person will have held
responsible for the actions that are taken by some another person. Under this law employer is held
responsible for the actions performed by its employees.
Impact of legislations and regulations:
Legislations have a huge impact over the actions performed by a company as it supports in gaining the
trust among customers as well as also help in enhancing the brand image. Health and Safety Act was formulated to
provide safety to employees from any harm that may happen while they work at office premises. Thomas Cook
follow this Act so that its employees can perform their operations much effectively. Apart from this Occupiers Act
support Thomas Cook in providing an assurance to its employees as well as customers that their protection is
company's responsibility and anything miss happen occurs then organisation will pay for it. In Data Protection Act,
Thomas Cook provide assurance that the data of employees as well as customer will be protected by company.
These all factors reflect that by applying all the legislations, Thomas Cook will be to get the trust of its customers
which further support them in expanding its customer base. Following points describe about the impact of
legislation in Travel & Tourism sector within UK:
 Make Tourism more secure and safe.
 Improving the employer-employee relation.
 Uniformity with National Development & Tourism Policy
 Support in determining the legal issues and methods to rectify them.
 Confidential information of customer can be kept more safe & secure.
There is various legislation that are associated with employees and society from being discriminated at the office
premises in their regular period of time. These laws support Thomas Cook and society in protecting themselves from
discrimination. Some of them are mentioned below:
Sex Discrimination Act, 1975: This Act was enacted on 12 November, 1975. This Act was enforced with
an aim to promote equality and prohibit the discrimination on the basis of their gender. As any such discrimination
will be treated unlawful. This law support Thomas Cook in developing an environment of equality where employees
can work freely without any comparison or discrimination.
Race Discrimination Act, 1976: The Act was formed on 22 November, 1976. It protects the employees
being discriminates on racial grounds. Further, various penalties and punishments are provided to the person doing
such illegal acts. By enforcing this law Thomas Cook can develop an environment for its employees where no one
gets criticized by someone on the basis of their colour, nationality or background.
Employment Protection (Consolidation) Act, 1978: The Act was formed on 1 November, 1978. This Act
work toward protecting the rights of employees working in an organisation. The Act contains the criteria on which
an employee can be dismissed and also the grounds on which dismissal will be treated as unfair. An employee may
appeal to Employment Tribunal for getting justice along with the costs incurred to get his position back in the
company
Disability Discrimination Act, 1995: The Act came into existence by 8 November, 1995. In accordance
with this Act, it provides that no one should be discriminated on the basis of their physical disabilities. As per this
Act, Thomas Cook must not have denied a person from job on the basis of their disability perform particular job.
These Act are related with promoting equality at workplace and not only in Thomas Cook but in whole
tourism industry. Proper implication of these laws will allow employees to get equal chance of getting opportunities
at their workplace. This action will further support Thomas Cook in retaining its customers for longer period of time.