RETHINKING THE LIABILITY OF PACKAGE TOUR OPERATORS IN SPAIN Obviously, if we look back and analyse the evolution of the liability of the organisers of package travel, it is possible to conclude that this new regulation seems to respond to the origin of the extinct article 11 of the LVC30, as well as being more consistent with article 13 of the DVC&SVV. At this point, and if the new regulation is not based on a significant improvement in consumer protection, what justification, which is not given either in the text where it is introduced for the first time or in the explanatory memorandum of the regulation, justifies this important change? As I’ve said before, I think we need to look at how the COVID-19 pandemic will affect small tour operators31. This change in the division of responsibilities between organisers and retailers can only be explained by the terrible situation experienced by the tourism sector, and in particular by travel agencies and transport companies – mainly airlines – during the two long years of the pandemic. First, with the closures, restrictions and suspensions of travel, and then with a slower-than-expected recovery, so that it took two years for the sector to return to normality and return to pre-pandemic figures. In fact, in addition to the restrictions, the total standstill in leisure travel in the first months of 2020, the travel restrictions, the different entry requirements for destinations, as well as the quarantines imposed by some countries on the return of their nationals, caused an economic crisis in the sector, which, together with the crisis affecting society in general, due to the paralysis of a large part of productive activity, with the consequent negative impact on national economies, meant that leisure travel itself was absolutely dispensable in terms of consumer priorities. The cancellation of flights and, above all, of holidays (many of which were organised as part of package holidays) led to a lack of liquidity on the part of travel agencies, many of which were retailers, who were faced with the prospect of being reimbursed. The partial solutions promoted first by the government and then by the European Union itself, which promoted the possibility of issuing flexible vouchers, did not prove to be an ideal solution for these companies either, so it is reasonable to think that the current regulation is a response to the socio-economic situation generated in the sector32. 30 Of the same opinion Pérez Moriones, (2022 b). 31 Of the same opinion Pérez Moriones, 2022, p. 209. 32 Vid. González Cabrera, 2020. The serious problems generated for the sector are also highlighted in GAUR L. et al, 2021, pp. 4079 et seq.
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