Legislation and Ethics in Travel and Tourism Sector: A UK Focus

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Legislation and Ethics in Travel and Tourism Sector
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................4
1.1 – Explain the legal and regulatory framework of the travel and tourism sector with
reference to England and Wales..................................................................................................4
1.2 – Discuss surface, sea and air transport law in relation to the carriage of passengers within
the legal and regulatory framework of United Kingdom.............................................................6
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................8
Introduction..................................................................................................................................8
2.1 Evaluate the impacts of the principles of health, safety and security legislation on the
travel and tourism sector with reference to a UK tour operator and travel agency.....................8
2.2 Analyze legislation that relates to equality with reference to a UK tour operator and travel
agency........................................................................................................................................10
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................11
Task 3.............................................................................................................................................12
3.1 Explain contract legislation in relation to travel and tourism customers.............................12
3.2 Explain consumer protection legislation in relation to travel and tourism customers.........13
Task 4.............................................................................................................................................16
Introduction................................................................................................................................16
4.1 Analyze ethical dilemmas faced by the travel and tourism sector.......................................16
4.2 Analyze the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policy of a specified travel and
tourism business.........................................................................................................................17
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................18
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................19
Reference List................................................................................................................................20
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Introduction
The legislations and ethics in the travel and tourism sector is mandatory for the tourism
companies to follow. The assignment discusses the important laws and policies of the
government that help to meet with the requirements of the travel and tourism sector. Besides this,
the health and safety legislations allows travel and tourism companies to keep their customers
under safe and secure environment. The later part of the assignment deals with Thomas Cook
that is one of the finest travel and tourism companies in the United Kingdom. It is known to
provide quality tourism services to the people of the United Kingdom. This assignment helps to
understand the techniques used by Thomas Cook for meeting with the expectation of the
customers. The assignment helps to provide a clear understanding of the importance of legal and
regulatory frameworks within the travel and tourism sector.
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Task 1
1.1 – Explain the legal and regulatory framework of the travel and tourism sector with
reference to England and Wales
This section of the assignment provides a proper understanding of the important legislations and
policies that are implemented by the travel consultancy for training Retail Travel Consultant.
This section assists in enhancing the quality of the training event that is provided to the travel
and tourism companies. The discussions of the legal frameworks have been outlined below:
Legal Framework
In order to operate in a better manner, it is important for the travel and tourism sector to make
use of the legal framework that has been developed by the government. This allows them to
formulate some specific regulations and rules in the workplace that should be followed by the
employees and the higher authorities for meeting with the expectations of the customers.
Moreover, it helps to increase the quality of their tourism services and enhances the level of
customer experience.
Strategic Rail Authority (SRA)
As the name suggests, the regulation was developed in order to assist the railway authority of the
United Kingdom. Following the rules of the legislation was mandatory for the railway authority.
This will help them to know about the requirements of the customers and they will be able to
provide them with adequate railway services (Nash, 2018). The act turned to be tremendous help
for the railway authority. The act was however, abolished on 1st December 2006.
Health and Safety Commission (HSC)
The Health and Safety Commission (HSC) was developed in accordance to the Health and Safety
at work Act, 1974. The HSC assisted the travel and tourism companies to ensure that they are
keep all their customers and employees under safe and secure environment. Besides this,
according to the commission, it was important to provide the employees with adequate training
so that they are able to take necessary measure during times of emergency (Boyle, 2015).
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Health and Safety Executive (HSE)
The health and safety executive (HSE) performs a check on the different travel and tourism
companies of the United Kingdom for ensuring that companies are maintaining their standards to
provide safety and security to the customers as well as the employees in the workplace. It is
important for the tourism companies to meet with the objectives of Health and Safety at Work
Act, 1974 (Sinelnikov et al., 2015). Therefore, the customers will be able to make use of the
services and operate under safe environment.
International Air Transport Association (IATA)
The IATA is responsible for ensuring that the customers making use of the airline services are
getting high quality services. The Civil Aviation Regulation of 2005 is one of the most important
regulations of IATA that helped to provide high amount of safety for the customers during their
travel period (Vasigh and Fleming, 2016).
Maritime Authorities
The coastguard agency is responsible for providing health safety and security to the people
making use of sea transportation. Their policies and rules are implemented for providing services
while the customer is at the sea.
Association of British Transport Agents (ABTA)
This is a trade agency in the United Kingdom. This helps to avoid any type of hindrance that
hampers the process of business in the tourism sector. The sustainability issues in the travel and
tourism sector are maintained by the ABTA. Besides this, it helps customers by providing them
with enough financial supports (Black, 2018).
Civil Aviation Authority (CAA)
This important legislation deals with different aspects of the aviation industry in the United
Kingdom. It provides inspections of the pilot’s license and tests equipments so that they are able
to make proper use of it.
Aviation Authority (CAA)
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This important legislation helps to deal with different aspects of the aviation industry in the
United Kingdom. It provides inspections of the pilot’s license and tests equipments so that they
are able to make proper use of it.
1.2 – Discuss surface, sea and air transport law in relation to the carriage of passengers
within the legal and regulatory framework of United Kingdom.
There are certain laws and legislations that should be followed by the travel and tourism
companies of the United Kingdom. This section discusses some important policies related to
road, sea and air transportation.
Surface Laws
Concessionary Bus Travel Act of 2007 is an important legislation that is developed mainly for
the disabled and aged population of UK. The law clearly states that the passengers above 60
years of age are completely liable to use the services that are offered by the buses (Laverty and
Millett, 2015). Age UK is another initiative taken by the government of the United Kingdom for
ensuring that aged people are able to make use of transport services without paying for them.
Carriage of Passenger by Road Act 1974 is another legislation that states its contract is
applicable to carriage of the passengers as well as their luggage. It is important for the carrier to
carry the passengers to their destined location.
Another important transport legislation developed by the UK government was the Disability
Discrimination Act of 1995 and 2005. The law was formulated for the physically challenged
people making use of the transport services. The law stated that physically challenged people
should not be discriminated in the use of transportation medium (McLean, 2015).
Sea Laws
The most important legislation followed by sea transport companies is Carriage of Goods by Sea
Act of 1971. The Act states that all the goods carried through the sea will be under safe and
secure environment. Apart from this, the law also states that customers have the right to ask for
their compensation, if the ferry has been cancelled due to some obvious reasons. Moreover, the
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Disability Discrimination
Act of 1995 and 2005: The
law was formulated for the
physically challenged
people making use of the
transport services.
Concessionary Bus
Travel Act of 2007 is an
important legislation that is
developed mainly for the
disabled and aged
population of UK.
International Air
Transport Association:
The IATA is responsible
for ensuring that the
customers making use of
the airline services are
getting high quality
services.
sea passengers are allowed similar services that are provided to the customers using the airline
services (Rogers et al., 2016).
Air Transportation Laws
The Air Navigation of 2005 is an important legislation that was followed by the airline
companies to implement proper functioning of the workplace. Apart from this, the Civil Aviation
Regulation of 2005 was developed to address the issues and challenges that was faced within the
airline companies (Sun et al., 2017).
Figure 1: Legal and Regulatory Framework of Travel and Tourism Sector
(Source: created by the learner)
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Task 2
Executive Summary
Health safety and security within the premises of the workplace is necessary for maintaining the
standard of services. This report discusses the important policies and laws related to health and
safety of individuals within the workplace.
Introduction
The health and safety legislations of the United Kingdom are applicable to the workplace of
Thomas Cook. This management report discusses the importance of the legislations and laws and
signifies its impact on the workplace. The later part of the report discusses the relevance of
different equality laws and its application in the workplace of Thomas Cook.
2.1 Evaluate the impacts of the principles of health, safety and security legislation on the
travel and tourism sector with reference to a UK tour operator and travel agency
The health and safety legislations are important for Thomas Cook. This section discusses the
impact of the legislations on the workplace of the company.
Health and Safety at Work Act 1974
This act helps to determine the framework that could be used in order to manage the health
safety and security of the workplace. Besides this, the act states the duties of the employers and
employees within the workplace (Holt and Allen, 2015).
Impact
The impact of this act can be seen in the way it has helped to maintain the safety standards
within the workplace of Thomas Cook. With the help of this, the workplace was able to make
practical implications of the act to keep their employees and customers under safe working area.
Besides this, another impact of the act was in the way it has simplified the ways in which the
safety and security policies were followed in the workplace. The Health and Safety Executive
(HSE) was able to observe organization to find out the breach, while following the act.
Occupiers Liability Act 1984
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The Occupiers Liability Act of 1984 is an important legislation that was formulated by the
government to ensure that the people within the premises of the workplace are not injured or
affected by the condition of the organization. The act states that if people are trespassing the
premises are injured, they can ask for a claim. However, the same is not applicable for the loss or
damage of their personal property (ter Haar et al., 2016).
Impact
After the implementation of the act, it became essential for the service providers to ensure that
they have constructed the infrastructure to reduce the effect on people that have entered the
premises for any kind of recreational activity. The workplace of Thomas Cook was maintained
and there was reduction in the rates of the accidental occurrences.
Data Protection
The Data Protection Act of 1998 is an important legislation that stated about the protection of the
data and information of the employees and the clients that are stored in the computers.
Impact
With the implementation of the Data Protection Act in the workplace of Thomas Cook, the
management was able to keep the personal information and data of their employees and
customers safe. This also helped to reduce the rates of data breach that were taking place in the
workplace (Gan et al., 2018).
Duty of Care
The Duty of Care states that individual should be responsible for their actions within the
workplace. As a result, they should provide care in such a way that it does not harm people
associated with the workplace.
Impact
The duty of care affected the workplace by reducing the risk associated in the organization. As a
result, the organization was able to take all the necessary measures that would prevent
individuals from any kind of physical harm.
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Vicarious Liability
The law related to vicarious liability states that employee within the workplace are liable to
commit an action that could harm other individuals. These include bullying, harassment and
many other discriminatory acts. The affected employee is able to take legal actions against the
employer.
Impact
With the implementation of the act, the employer was able to keep a check on the employee
performance and ensure that they are not doing things that could harm the integrity of others. It
opens equal opportunities in the workplace for the employees.
2.2 Analyze legislation that relates to equality with reference to a UK tour operator and
travel agency.
While functioning within the United Kingdom, Thomas Cook implements important legislations
related to equality. This creates equal opportunities for the employees within the workplace. The
discussion of the equality acts has been done below in a proper manner:
Sex Discrimination Act 1975
This act was formulated in order to ensure a certain level of equality amongst the male and
female employees in the workplace. As a result, both men and women could enjoy equal rights in
the workplace. It reduced the rates of discrimination and sexual harassment. Therefore, Thomas
Cook implements the act for maintain their standard of equality and providing equal rights and
opportunities in the organization (Wintemute, 2016).
Race Discrimination Act 1976
This act clearly stated that there should be no discrimination based on the grounds of caste, creed
or race. The implementation of the law encourages people from different cultural background to
work within the same workplace. Thomas Cook has employees from different racial
backgrounds. As a result, the act helps to overcome the issues of racial discrimination in the
workplace (Honeyford, 2017).
Employment Protection (Consolidation) Act 1978
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The Employment Protection Act of 1978 provides the employees with rights to protect their
employment. Besides this, the act states that employees are liable to gain all the opportunities
and benefits during their period of stay in the organization. Thomas Cook allows their employees
to gain the benefits that have been written in their terms of employment. This assists the
employees to perform within the organization as per the requirements.
Disability Discrimination Act 1995
This act states that individuals within the workplace should not be discriminated based on their
physically challenged state. The company should look to provide equal rights and opportunities
to the disabled individuals. This ensures that there is no discrimination amongst the employees
and they should be treated equal to the other employees (Sargeant, 2016).
Employment Act 2002
According to the Employment Act of 2002, the employees within the workplace should be
treated as permanent employees. Moreover, the act also states that employees working for
companies should be allowed maternity leaves.
Human Rights Act 1998
During the work tenure within the organization, employees have certain rights that should be
granted to them. The implementation of the Human Rights Act of 1998 allows employees their
rights within the workplace. All the employees are liable to increment of their salary in the
company. They should be allowed equal scope for growth and should be able to make use of the
opportunities in an unbiased manner (Kavanagh, 2015).
Conclusion
From the above discussions, it could be understood that employees within the workplace should
follow certain policies and laws. The implementation of these laws has been analyzed in
accordance to Thomas Cook. It can be understood that health safety and security is important for
the maintenance of workplace standards.
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