Arbitration and tourism: a feld to explore João Almeida Vidal 1 1. INTRODUCTION Tourism, particularly international tourism, as a human activity that involves the temporary relocation of the subject, brings into confict, more than many others, diferent and distinct legal systems. This fact determines that, in a dispute situation, two or more legal orders may be called upon to resolve the problem, with the ensuing problems of articulation. Such problems, which are so insurmountable, more often than not result in the injured party being denied compensation for damages. In order to remedy this problem, recourse to alternative dispute resolution procedures has been increased and encouraged, of which arbitration is of particular importance. Arbitration is nothing more than the use of a set of arbitrators who act as judges of a specifc case, promoting all the steps they deem appropriate with a view to a fair solution to the dispute presented to them. As an alternative means of dispute resolution, arbitration implies voluntariness. This means that only in cases in which the parties in a legal relationship have agreed to submit the litigation to arbitration this mechanism is possible. In other words, arbitration is not a means of dispute resolution that someone can impose unilaterally on another who has not given his consent. There are already cases of necessary and even mandatory arbitration in domestic arbitration, but not in international arbitration, so we will not consider them. Tour operators, travel agencies and hotels, among other stakeholders, enter into legal transactions with each other and with their clients. Their objective, as a business, is and will always be the maximisation of proft, which is in direct proportionality with the volume of business they are able to generate. From the business perspective, it therefore seemed relevant to us to assess whether, and to what extent, if so, prior and voluntary submission to an international arbitration system for dispute resolution infuences the wealth-generating capacity of a given tourism company, since arbitration allows the parties to tailor the process to the particularities of their commercial relations and ensure a rapid resolution of the dispute. The main objective of this article is, therefore, to analyse the arbitration procedure, particularly international arbitration, and, at the same time, to assess the efect on tourism businesses of resorting to alternative methods of dispute resolution. This evaluation should contribute to the clarifcation of whether there is, or not, a competitive advantage for companies that adopt this type of dispute resolution mechanism. As we will see at the end of the article, we will prove that there is a direct and statistically relevant relationship between the performance and competitiveness of a tourism company and the fact it has been subject to a more or less institutionalised international arbitration scheme. Invited Assistant Professor at ISMAT and at the University of Algarve; PhD in Law; PhD in 1 Tourism; Lawyer. 1
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