Unit 8: Legislation and Ethics in Travel and Tourism: Contract Law

This report examines contract law and consumer protection within the context of a UK-based travel agency, South Hall. The assignment analyzes a scenario where a customer from Spain is dissatisfied with the services provided. The report explores key legislation, including the Trade Descriptions Act 1968, the Consumer Protection Act 1987, the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977, the Unfair Terms in Contract Regulation 1999, and the Package Holidays and Tours Regulations 1992, as well as the duty of care. The analysis highlights the importance of these laws in protecting consumer rights, ensuring fair contracts, and defining the responsibilities of travel agencies. The report explains how these regulations apply to South Hall's business practices, emphasizing the need for accurate information, fair terms, and the safety of customers. It is an academic report submitted as part of the BTEC HND in Travel and Tourism Management, specifically addressing Unit 8: Legislation and Ethics in the Travel and Tourism Sector.

CONTRACT LAW AND CONSUMER PROTECTION
South hall is a travel agency which is based in UK and operating its business in
appropriate manner. The organisation is selling holiday packages from different tour
operators. The travel assistant have sold a package to a customer from Spain. The client
was not happy with the services and complained about the accuracy of information at the
time of booking. Some of the contract legislations are as follows that are going to be
explained to the travel assistant of South Hall:
Contracts for supply and goods: It is a type of contract in which the seller promise to
supply the good quality items or services that are ordered by the buyers according to their
requirements. In South Hall this act is followed in order to make sure that right services
are rendered to the clients.
Contract for provision of services: It is an agreement in which organisations make sure
that promised services are delivered to the customers or not. Managers in South Hall are
required to use these contracts so that issues of customers can be resolved.
Unfair contract terms act 1977: This act was imposed by the government of UK in
order to set limit for the breach of contract. It is very important for South Hall Travel to
follow this act as it may help to analyse such elements that are unfair and should not be
included in the agreement (Johnson, 2014).
Unfair terms in contract regulation 1999: It is an old instrument which was used in UK
to identify the unfair contracts within the country. It is a replacement of unfair contract
terms act 1977. It is required to be followed by South Hall so that it can be assured that
agreement is totally fair (Johnston and et.al., 2016).
Consumer protection legislation: Consumer protection can be defined as the laws, rules,
regulations and other policies that are imposed by the government. Main purpose behind
the launching of such acts is to protect the basic rights of consumers. It is very important
for all the business entities to follow all the regulations so that right products or services
can be offered to the customers. When individuals are not satisfied with the items that are
bought by them then they may use such rights in order to be protected and get the right
component. Following are the acts that are related to consumer protection:
Trade description act 1968: This act is launched by the parliament of United Kingdom
for the manufacturing, service and retail industry. According to this law all the service
providing companies like South Hall needs to provide detailed description of their
business to the customers. It may help the clients to find that they are getting the right
services by the organisation or not (Linderová and Janeček, 2017).
Consumer protection act 1987: this act provides the right to the customers to get
compensation on the defective products or inappropriate services. As the client from
Spain was not satisfied with the services of South Hall due to lack of right information by
the travel assistant. This act may help the customer to get compensation from the
organisation.
Package holidays and tours regulations 1992: According to this act all the business
entities which are providing holiday or tour packages to the customers to make sure that
they are following all the required legislations of the government. As South Hall is a
travel agency that offers different packages to the individuals and it is the main
responsibility of the company to make sure that these are secured and safe or not (Page,
Innes and Cutler, 2015).
Duty of care: It is an legal implication imposed by the government of UK to ensure the
safety of individuals involved in a contract. According to this act travel assistants of
South Hall should make sure that they are offering the right package to the customers or
not in order to assure their safety.