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

Package Tour Cancellations and Consumer Rights: Temporary State Aid for the Tourism and Travel Sector in the Time of Coronavirus in Latvia Marina Gunare 1 Alona Rogale-Homika 2 Abstract; 1. The Coronavirus is Entering Baltic States; 2. A State of Emergency; 3. Tourism Industry in Latvia; 4. Temporary State Aid; 5. Conclusions. Abstract The following paper considers the impact of COVID-19 on the tourism industry in Latvia; package tour cancellations and implementation of the voucher system; temporary state aid for the industry. 1. The Coronavirus is Entering Baltic States The outbreak of the coronavirus infection, also called COVID-19, in China, at the end of 2019, and its further spread around the world has caused concern, but no one could imagine what consequences this infection entail. On 26 February 2020, the first case of COVID-19 was detected in Estonia. It is known that the patient zero was an Iranian citizen who was in transit in Riga from Iran and then went to Estonia. At the same time, the first case of the virus was also detected in Lithuania. On 18 February, a woman who returned to Kaunas from a visit to the northern Italian city of Verona was admitted to Siauliai Republican Hospital. The state of emergency had already been declared two days prior, in Lithuania, which allowed the necessary measures to control the threat of the spread of the new coronavirus to be taken more freely. In Latvia, the measures taken until the 26 February were as follows: the State Operational Medical Commission decided to extend the restrictive measures for COVID-19, identifying 1 Dr.sc.pol, doc. Baltic International Academy, Riga, Latvia. 2 Mg. in Tourism Management. Baltic International Academy, Riga, Latvia.