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

As for the scope of the rule, interestingly, it concerns any provider and any passenger, traveller or host, regardless of their nationality and type of service offered (regardless of their being standard or low-cost). In the end, this is a legal measure adopted in favour of the market, to avoid its collapse due to the COVID-19 crisis. Despite having a substantial nature, since it affects transport contracts, package travel contracts and accommodation facilities, its effects are obviously financial. As far as the travel sector, the question was not so much (or not only) the cancellations, but also and above all the cash liquidity of companies. As a matter of fact, tour operators could not cope with the refunds, and they could not return sums that were no longer available. The majority of contracts provide for agreements with foreign suppliers, and it is not automatic that the termination of the contract in Italy results in the termination of the agreement with the foreign supplier. On the contrary, more frequently a suspension or renegotiation of the contract is envisaged. So, from this point of view, the so-called Law-Decree Cura Italia was rather a “Save Travel” one. 3. The Effects on Hospitality, Transport and Package Travel Contracts The provision adopted by the Italian Government offered immediate support to the sectors that had been mostly affected by the COVID-19 containment measures, since the whole country was declared as a “red zone”, and the ban on leaving homes and the suspension of all travel activities was imposed. There were no relevant legal problems regarding the hospitality industry, and at present, the only major difficulty that has been encountered concerns the relationship between hoteliers and online distribution. Online Travel Agencies, intermediaries operating on the electronic market, started to reimburse their users instantly. Therefore, hoteliers were wary of refunding cash and respecting the choice granted by the law. A certain dispute is opening, referring both to the reimbursement of the sums already paid, and to the payment of any commissions to intermediaries, which allegedly are not due. The situation is still currently very uncertain and delicate. OTAs continue to reimburse their customers and issue invoices to operators. For their part, the latter insist on challenging the legitimacy of the behaviour of the intermediary agencies. In fact, the law grants the hotelier the right to offer a substitute service of equivalent quality, higher or lower with a refund of the difference in price, or to reimburse the price or, otherwise, to issue a voucher, to be used within one year of its issue, for an amount equal to the refund due. In this respect, the attitude of the OTAs appears to be strongly detrimental to the position