The Legal Impacts of COVID-19 in the Travel, Tourism and Hospitality Industry

3 The tour operator is ready to provide the package, but the country where the traveller resides does not allow the traveller to travel out of the country. Or it is a situation when: The tour operator is generally ready to provide the package, but the country where the package travel shall be performed does not allow the entrance of travellers from certain risky states, placing them in quarantine. As mentioned earlier, since 13 March, Czech citizens cannot leave the Czech Republic because the Government does not allow it. Even if a traveller booked a package to Greenland, which might have been free of COVID-19 and in full operation, and even if the tour operator was still ready to provide the package, a traveller from the Czech Republic will be unable to use the package because the Government does not allow him or her to travel. Should the tour operator terminate the package because the traveller cannot use it? Probably not, because nothing prevents the operator from the performing of the package. Moreover, it is the performance, and not the consumption, of a package which matters in terms of the wording of Article 12 PTD. In this case, are the consequences to be borne by the traveller? Shall he or she withdraw and pay the termination fees? This scenario has been relevant for many tour operators. We have been analysing it under Czech law and have come to the conclusion that there is no clear answer in the PTD. We have concluded that we should look at the general principles of contract law, for example, under Czech law, this means that that there is a possibility for a disadvantaged party – in this case, the traveller – to ask for a just renegotiation of the contract. This being so, the traveller should ask the Czech tour operator for a fair renegotiation of the contract. Further, the same conclusion was drawn for situations where the traveller cannot use the package because he or she is on the blacklist, for example, Italians, or people who have been previously travelling through Italy, were already blacklisted in many countries in February. The inability is on the part of the traveller. While it is true that the tour operator has a duty to provide the traveller with general information on visa requirements and information on health formalities of the country of destination, this duty relates only to the time before the conclusion of the package travel contract. Should the tour operator bear the consequences of later changes, even if it only affects the traveller, and not the package itself? We believe that this controversial situation is also a case for a fair renegotiation of the package travel contract. III.3. What is a combination of a clear and controversial situation? It is a scenario wherein neither can the traveller use the package due to the limitations set by the government, nor can the tour operator can provide the package. When faced this scenario for the first time, the author interpreted it in favour of the travellers, because, in this situation, one can determine that the tour operator cannot perform the