Analysis of Legal and Regulatory Aspects in Travel and Tourism

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments for students. This report analyzes the legal and ethical aspects of the travel and tourism sector.

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................................2
TASK 1...................................................................................................................................... 3
1.1 EXPLAIN THE LEGAL AND REGULATORY FRAMEWORK OF THE TRAVEL AND TOURISM
SECTOR................................................................................................................................. 3
1.2 SURFACE, SEA AND AIR TRANSPORT LAW IN RELATION TO THE CARRIAGE OF
PASSENGERS WITHIN THE LEGAL AND REGULATORY FRAMEWORK....................................5
TASK 2...................................................................................................................................... 7
2.1 THE IMPACTS OF THE PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH, SAFETY AND SECURITY LEGISLATION ON
THE TRAVEL AND TOURISM SECTOR....................................................................................7
2.2 ANALYSIS OF LEGISLATION THAT RELATES TO EQUALITY...............................................8
TASK 3.................................................................................................................................... 10
3.1 CONTRACT LEGISLATION IN RELATION TO TRAVEL AND TOURISM CUSTOMERS.........10
3.2 CONSUMER PROTECTION LEGISLATION IN RELATION TO TRAVEL AND TOURISM
CUSTOMERS....................................................................................................................... 11
TASK 4.................................................................................................................................... 13
4.1 ETHICAL DILEMMAS FACED BY THE TRAVEL AND TOURISM SECTOR...........................13
4.2 THE CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (CSR) POLICY OF A SPECIFIC TOUR BUSINESS
........................................................................................................................................... 14
CONCLUSION.......................................................................................................................... 16
REFERENCES........................................................................................................................... 17

INTRODUCTION
Tourism is travel for pleasure, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining
tourists, and the business of operating tours. According to the United Nation World Tourism
Organisation (UNWTO), tourism took the movement of people to other places or countries
outside their daily environment for personal or professional purpose. This article helps the
learner to understand the legal and regulatory framework, health, safety, security and
consumer protection laws and business ethics in travel and tourism. The article also
provides an insight view of the legal and moral issues that permeate the travel and tourism
sector. It also provides an introduction to the legal and regulatory framework that is
important for every organisation in the travel and tourism sector. Learners will also come to
know about the rules and regulations necessary in the travel and tourism sector, and the
importance of health, safety, security, and consumer protection law in the sector. This
article provides full knowledge about the laws, how they are applied and the importance of
the laws. Learners also get the opportunity to explore business ethics in the travel and
tourism sector, the principles of business ethics in producing the social responsibility policy
for the travel and tourism business.

TASK 1
Tourism law provides a framework that governs travel agencies, travel organisation,
airports. The tourism laws are available for the environmental protection, health and safety,
employee rights, planning, consumer protection, company law or contract laws that are
formed to provide facilities and assured the smooth functioning of the tourist activities in
the country (Becker, 2016).
1.1 EXPLAIN THE LEGAL AND REGULATORY FRAMEWORK OF THE TRAVEL
AND TOURISM SECTOR
Legislation and regulatory framework are
the broad systems connected to the
tourism industry in many ways. The
tourism industry includes the seller,
business organisation, suppliers,
hospitality, consumers, and contracts and
so on. The legislation is applied while
when these factors interact with each
other. A legal framework is the set of rules
governing decision making, agreements,
laws etc. The regulatory framework
suggests the system to implement the
legislation. The regulation of the tourism
sector is different from different countries
(Hall et al., 2015).
DEVELOPMENT OF TOURISM ACT 1969-
The act includes the various rules and
regulations of the tourism sector and was
established by the British tourist
authority. The authority focused on the
issues faced by the tourism industries.
This act also established the tourist board
for England and Wales (Medlik, 2016).
LAWS AND TOURISM- Laws may be
defined as the set of rules and regulation
for any sector which the sector needs to
follow like the employment law, company
law, health and safety. But tourism
includes the set of rules and regulation
that are only applicable in the tourism
sector. The tourism rules differ from
country to country. The tourism law
includes health and safety, travelling and
consumer protection (Mason, 2015).
HSE- HSE is known as the Health and
Safety Executive act 1974. This is the only
act used by Great Britain for the
protection of the employee and includes
the duties of the employer and employee
(Rogers et al., 2017).
HEALTH AND SAFETY COMMISSION- The
Health and Safety commission act is
regulated in 1974. This act includes the

Health and Safety of the employee and
the employer when they are at the
workplace. The health and safety
commission have the members of six or
nine that look after the issue faced by the
employee and employer in the workplace
regarding the health and safety (Holland
et al., 2018).
SRA- SRA stands for strategic Rail
Authority and is regulated through the
railways' act 1993. The SRA has the power
to make and prevent the laws in favour of
the citizen of the country and to protect
the consumer’s interest (Al-Shaer and
Zaman, 2017).
IATA- IATA stands for International Air
Transport Association established in 1945
and the headquarter is in Montreal. The
aim of the association is to deal with the
world airlines (Blain, 2017).
CAA- CAA is the Civil Aviation Authority is
a government agency in the UK. This
agency is responsible for the safety and
protection of the citizens who are using
air transport (Halpern et al., 2016).
ATOL- ATOL is an agent who is responsible
for providing safety to the consumer who
has purchased the air tickets, travelling
through airlines and have a tour package.
It handles all the licensing issues of the
consumer. ATOL stands for Air Travel
Operators Licencing (Cook, 2017).
ABTA- ABTA stands for Association of
British Travel Agency. The agency has
more than 1200 agents around the world
which deals with the travel agents. They
have control over the agents and
responsible for maintaining the standards
of travelling (Filimonau and Högström,
2017).
COURTS- Courts may be defined as the
government authority that is responsible
for handling the issue within the country.
The issues are based on the type of crime
like regarding the property, the social
issues, issues faced by any citizen and
according to the issues the courts are also
divided for handling the case like country
court responsible for handling the issues
related to land, Magistrate court for the
civil and crime issues (Ali, 2018).

1.2 SURFACE, SEA AND AIR TRANSPORT LAW IN RELATION TO THE
CARRIAGE OF PASSENGERS WITHIN THE LEGAL AND REGULATORY
FRAMEWORK
A carriage may be defined as the source of
travelling through which the person
moves from one place to another. The
carriage is the mode of transport the
passenger uses that are the sea, surface
or air transport. There are some rules and
regulation which the carriage, as well as
the passengers, needs to follow while
using the transport. The rules are made by
the government keeping in mind the
benefits as a little damage of assets may
result in the loss for the passenger as well
as for the organization (Tsimplis, 2017).
SURFACE LAW- Surface law of the country
is governed by the International Carriage
of the passenger by Road Act, 1974. This
law is responsible for handling all the
issues encountered during travelling on
the surface. The law is used for protecting
the passengers who are travelling with the
authority and face some issues during
travelling. The issues may be loss of
luggage, physical or mental injury, not
getting the proper facilities during travel.
The surface law provides rules and
regulation for taking care of all the issues
and making the passenger’s comfort
during travel on the roadways (Camilleri,
2018).
SEA LAW- Sea laws are the laws applicable
to the passengers travelling through sea
or water mode. The United Nation
introduced an organization who is
responsible for the safety and protection
of the passenger travelling through
seaway. The organisation is the
International Maritime Organisation. This
organisation is responsible for taking care
of the passengers keeping in mind the
comfort zone of the passenger as well as
other factors like the environment. Also
focuses on the safety majors like lifesaving
equipment, fire protection measures, and
lifesaving skills of crewmembers are
useful in bad circumstances on the ship
for saving the life of the passengers. The
act is all about handling the negative
situation during travel (Treves, 2017).
AIR LAW- Air laws are applicable to the
passengers travelling through air mode.
Air law includes many laws. Warsaw
Convention Act, 1929 is responsible for
protecting the passenger during travel
and if any damage, injury or death took
place during travel, the traveller or its
family can claim the compensation for the
suffering. Montreal Conference Act, 1999
replaced the Warsaw Convention Act and

come into power on 4th November 2003
and have some advance and better rules
for the safety of the passenger. The five
freedom force agreement, 1944 includes
the rules and regulation of flying over its
territory without landing to reduce the
traffic. The Denied Boarding
Compensation scheme, 1997 is
responsible for enhancing the protection
standards for the passenger travelling
through airways and also focused on the
comfort zone of the passengers during
travel (Lyall and Larsen, 2016).

TASK 2
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The executive summary provides the overall planning and strategies used by the
organisation in the travel and tourism sector. Health, safety and security of the tourist play
an important role in the travel and tourism sector. It became a responsibility of all to detect
the hazards and try to minimise the impact of the hazard. The main emphasis of legislators
is the development of tourism by providing better and advanced facilities regarding health
and security as travel and tourism became a major source of development in economic as
well as employment sector (Edgell Sr, 2016).
COMPANY OVERVIEW
TUI Travel is the world's largest tour operator organisation. The company has a market in all
sector of tourism like hotels, travel, tourism, health and safety. The company is established
in 1973 and entered the tourism sector and have experience of more than 40 years in the
tourism sector. In 2007 the organisation merged with the UK’s first choice holidays PLC
(Robinson, 2016).
2.1 THE IMPACTS OF THE PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH, SAFETY AND SECURITY
LEGISLATION ON THE TRAVEL AND TOURISM SECTOR
There are a number of legislation for the health, safety and security. The health and safety
of tourist became a major aspect of concern according to the Health and safety at work Act,
1974. The main aim of health and safety regulation is to provide a safe environment for the
employee and employer for working. TUI is one of the largest tour operators in the world
and emphasis on health and safety legislation. The company provides safe accommodation
and better food facilities to the employee and employer for maintaining health and safety
(Gostin and Wiley, 2016).
The Health and Safety at Work, 1974 provides the rules and regulation an employer needs
to follow in providing the safety to the employee and make it important to do the duty. TUI
also needs to follow all the rules and regulation of the legislation for health and safety of the

traveller. Some situation arises where the law is not applicable and so needs to guide the
employer for overcoming the situation (Holland et al., 2018).
GUIDANCE- Guidance refers to educating the people about the safety measures and laws
they need to follow during travel. The TUI travels needs to make the people aware of the
legislation. Also, the organisation needs to provide technical education to the people for
health and safety during travel (Holland et al., 2018).
REGULATION- It is the responsibility of the organisation to look after the health and safety
of the employees and for that, the organization needs to educate the employees about the
safety. The organisation needs to assign a team which look after the health and safety issues
and the team must be well trained for handling the issues (Holland et al., 2018).
APPROVED CODES OF PRACTISE- ACOP is responsible for making code according to the laws
for health and safety. TUI needs to make the codes for handling the hazards within the
organisation regarding the health and safety of the employees. The ACOP divides the duties
of the employee and the employer for handling the issues. The employee needs to attend
the training sessions for gaining the knowledge regarding the health and safety measures,
needs to report the hazards, and try to prevent them. It became a major responsibility of
the employee as well as of the employer to follow their duties with proper rules and
regulation as not following the rules in a proper manner may lead to health and safety
issues during travel (Gostin and Wiley, 2016).
2.2 ANALYSIS OF LEGISLATION THAT RELATES TO EQUALITY
Equality refers to treating everyone equally and every sector needs to follow the legislation
made for equality. In the tourism industry, everyone needs to follow the legislation on the
basis of the services they are providing to the traveller. The organisation needs to maintain
equality on the basis of age, gender, class and disability. The agency needs to take care of
the entire traveller by providing better services to them without any inequality. As
discrimination on any basis by the company may lead to adverse effects and reduce the faith
in traveller’s mind. There are many laws passed for equality and everyone needs to follow
the laws with proper rules and regulation. Following the rules not only help the organization
in development but also take care of the comfort zone of the traveller which plays an

important role in the health, safety and security of the people. There are mainly two laws
for equality in the travel and tourism sector (Ravnborg, 2016).
EQUALITY ACT- The Equality Act, 2010 provides the rules for treating every citizen equally.
This law is applicable to every citizen, company and countries for the good fare. The equality
act is actually a combination of many acts based on different factors like disability, sex
discrimination, employment equality, religion, age and sexual orientation (Tonkiss, 2016).
SEX DISCRIMINATION ACT- Sex Discrimination Act, 1975 is introduced by the government
for providing equality to the men and women on the basis of education, employment, sex,
nationality, colour and marriage. Every citizen has the right to choose their field and the
right to equality (Wintemute, 2017).
DISABILITY DISCRIMINATION ACT- The Disability Discrimination Act, 2005 is responsible for
providing equality to the people who are disabled. The system needs to treat every disable
person equally and there will be no discrimination on the basis of religion, colour,
nationality, sex, and age. Everyone needs to follow the legislation for taking care of the
health and safety of the citizens. If anyone is discriminated on any basis then the person has
the right to take action against the discriminators on the basis of the Acts (Fredman, 2017).
CONCLUSION
Health, safety and security became one of the important aspects of the travel and tourism
sector. Every tourism agency and tourism operators need to look after the health and safety
of the traveller. For providing the services regarding the health and safety the company
needs to follow the legislation of the travel and tourism sector. If the company follow the
proper rules and regulation, provide better services and no discrimination on any basis will
not only help the citizens in gaining comfort zone but also create a faith in their mind that
leads to the development of the organisation and also increase the tourism with the tourism
agencies.

TASK 3
Consumer protection refers to the set of laws made for the consumer which include all the
rights of the consumer as well as rules for fair trade. Every consumer needs to follow the
law for fair trade and needs to be aware of the laws. Following the legislation helps the
consumer as well as the association to do business in a fair way. If any consumer gets
trapped in the deals that are not satisfactory or not according to the legislation, the
consumer has the right to take action against the deal (Scott, 2018).
3.1 CONTRACT LEGISLATION IN RELATION TO TRAVEL AND TOURISM
CUSTOMERS
A contract may be defined as a legal agreement between two or more parties that includes
all the rights and rules for doing the agreement. In the travel and tourism sector, every
travel association have a contract with the consumer that includes the travel package details
like payment and facilities. If the consumer is not satisfied with the package the consumer
can step back to the contract. Different travel contract has different rules and regulations
based on certain criteria like; destination, cost, arrival, duration, departure. The association
makes these criteria’s keeping in mind the facilities they are providing to the consumers an
also the criteria changes according to the travel package. If the travel package is of more
days then the criteria are slightly different in accordance with the accommodation, timing
and price (Stone and Devenney, 2017).
ACCEPTANCE- Acceptance is the process of accepting the offer means, both the association
and the consumer agree on the contract and accept all the terms and condition after a
discussion (Stone and Devenney, 2017).
CAPACITY- Capacity refers to some specific criteria which need to be fulfilled for doing an
agreement. Different association have different eligibility criteria like the consumer should
be 18 years of age to sign a contract (Stone and Devenney, 2017).
CERTAINTY- Certainty refers to the fairness of the contract. Before making any agreement
both parties need to have a clear discussion about the rules and regulation about the travel
package (Stone and Devenney, 2017).

CONSIDERATION- Consideration is the process of finalising the contract. When both the
parties agree on the contract then a certain amount of money is considered for finalising the
contract regarding tourism (Stone and Devenney, 2017).
OFFER- Offers are the conditions or suggestion given by the association to the consumer
while doing an agreement. It needs the acceptance of both parties on the conditions to sign
a contract (Stone and Devenney, 2017).
Contract legislation in relation to travel and tourism needs to take care of some conditions
like the agreement between parties, details of the package like the place, consideration
money, destination and other factors. Apart from that preference of the consumer and
terms and condition of the package also needs to be mentioned on the contract (Stone and
Devenney, 2017).
3.2 CONSUMER PROTECTION LEGISLATION IN RELATION TO TRAVEL AND
TOURISM CUSTOMERS
The consumer protection legislation is responsible for protecting the consumers from the
unfair deal done by the association during the contract. The main aim is to protect the rights
and interest of the consumer (Scott, 2018).
TRADE DESCRIPTION ACT- The Trade Description Act, 1968 is responsible for prohibiting the
wrong price of goods, accommodation, services, and other facilities available for the
consumer. The false use of the act needs to investigate the trade process by checking the
description by the provider, supply of the goods, services and the accommodation of the
association. The act includes all the rules and regulation a trader needs to follow for fair
trade. It is the responsibility of the association to follow all the legislation with proper rules
and regulation for securing themselves from any kind of trap. If the association is found
doing illegal trade, the government has the power to cancel the licence of the association
(Howells and Weatherill, 2017).
CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT- The Consumer Protection Act, 1987 is responsible for
protecting the consumer by providing the rights and include the responsibilities of the
association to protect the consumer from any kind of fraud. For example, an association
needs to mention about the product quality, quantity, price details and the harms and

benefits of the product for the safety and convenience of the customer. If the consumers
get all the details regarding the product will assure the customer about the fairness of the
product and enhances the faith with regards to the product. Same is applicable in the travel
and tourism sector in which the traveller needs the proper and complete detail of the
package for securing themselves from any kind of fraud. If the consumer is not satisfied with
the package he/she can withdrawal the package anytime. All the consumer's issue is
combined into the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulation Act, 2008. In the
case of travel and tourism industries, the association needs to look towards the price and
services charges, services at the time of renting, price discloser, and other material
information like swimming pools, routes and gym facilities (Howells and Weatherill, 2017).
PACKAGE TRAVEL REGULATION- The package Travel Regulation Act, 1992 is responsible for
the correction of the mistakes done at the time of the contract. The package Travel
Regulation includes all the rules and regulation that are needed at the time of correcting the
mistakes done by the association as well as by the consumers. This act is like providing a
sample of the package, the organisation educate the consumer about the deal by providing
a minimum requirement for the agreement. The consumer takes time to understand the
deal and after understanding if the consumer is agreeing for the contract but needs some
changes in the contract, then with the help of Package Travel Regulation Act the association
and the consumer correct the deal for the final agreement. The agreement needs to be
done by following proper rules and regulation because if the contract is not up to the laws,
it is considered as illegal which is not beneficial for the association as well as for the
consumer and reduces the trust towards the association. The government has the power to
cancel the licence or to take strict action towards the organisation that is not following the
legislation with proper rules and regulation for the good fare of the consumers (Howells and
Weatherill, 2017).