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

additional countries and territories from which special precautions had to be taken. The countries and territories affected by the coronavirus that were the subject of these specific measures were China, South Korea, Iran and the Italian territories of Lombardy and Veneto. 2. A State of Emergency Latvian tour operators and travel agencies started to experience specific difficulties in planning their businesses, as the COVID-19 situation became global, entailing not only drop in sales but also numerous cancellations and refunds. Companies that specialise in business tourism cannot plan any future sales due to the lack of trips and events, such as exhibitions and conferences, which have been cancelled. The situation in the tourism market began to develop rapidly at the end of February when charter flights to Bergamo were suspended from Riga until 21 March, as announced on 28 February. For anyone who purchased a trip to Bergamo between 29 February 2020 and 21 March 2020, the tour operator offered them the choice of any other trip provided by the tour operator, but the customers had also the option of cancelling the trip or receiving a refund. Moreover, the repatriation of Latvian citizens, who were on vacation in Italy, was carried out on 29 February. At the same time, there were no special measures being taken at the airports, ports and State borders in Latvia; no medical staff and no special equipment were being provided at the points of disembarkation; and people continued to move freely across borders, from the airports and ports. However, the situation changed drastically when Latvia declared a state of emergency – until 14 April – in connection with COVID-19 and announced state border closure on 17 March with the opportunity for Latvian citizens, who were abroad during that time, to return home. Information regarding the repatriation flights was available on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia’s official website. The precaution measures taken by the Government of Latvia were taken gradually, according to the overall situation in the state. Following the Government recommendations, the tour operators cancelled charter flights from 13 March until the end of the winter season (2019-2020). The customers from cancelled winter season flights (2019-2020) in the period from 13 March to April 19 were invited to postpone their travel plans to a later period. They could change their trips to other tour operator destinations and/or the season at current prices. The customers could also decide to change their trip at any time until the end of 2020