International Journal of Tourism, Travel and Hospitality Law 2023

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TOURISM, TRAVEL AND HOSPITALITY LAW ARN states that a circumstance that is known can not constitute an unavoidable circumstance within the meaning of the act. If a circumstance is known at the time of the booking, the traveler always has a choice not to book or to book a trip to another destination which is not affected. A traveler that books a trip to a destination, knowing that there is a wide spread of Covid19 or that the Ministry for Foreign Affairs’ advices against travels to that destination, should thus not have the right to cancel the trip without cancellation fee. 1.2.4 Significantly affecting the performance of the package In order for a traveler to cancel a package due to UEC, the traveler also must prove that the UEC significantly affects the performance of the package, i.e. that the impact of the pandemic significantly affects the specific destination to which the traveler has bought a package or the transport to that destination. In one ARN case, the traveler had bought a trip to Japan. The traveler canceled the trip due to the pandemic and claimed a right to refund of the total price paid. The traveler referred to information in newspapers that several hundred citizens of Japan had been infected and that at the time of cancellation a cruise ship outside Japan was quarantined due to infection on board. The traveler also referred to recommendations from Japanese authorities to avoid large groups and that the schools in Japan had been closed. ARN found that the traveler referred to the situation in the country of Japan but did not address the situation in specific places in Japan that the traveler should visit. In light hereof and since the traveler did not invoke any evidence in support of his claims, the board concluded that the traveler had not proved that she had a right to cancellation free of charge. Many cases have concerned the right to cancel a package since the traveler had to be quarantined on arrival at the destination. ARN has stated that the fact that travelers are quarantined means a very sharp restriction of travelers’ freedom, since it means that people are being isolated. A quarantine limits travelers’ freedom to move around at the destination. For most trips, a quarantine of 14 days would mean that the quarantine would last throughout the trip and the travel experience would thus be essentially completely different from what the traveler had reason to expect. Travelers has thus had the right to cancel free of charge if it was obvious before departure that they would have to be quarantined on arrival at the destination. For many trips that were to take place during the spring of 2020, travelers wanted to cancel as soon as it became clear that there was an ongoing pandemic, regardless of if there was an outbreak at the destination or not. A vast majority

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