Sustainable Tourism Law

LEGAL SUSTAINABILITY OF ADVENTURE TOURISM 365 all precautions. After a Class VI rapid has been run many times, its rating may be changed to an appropriate Class 5.x rating. In legal terms, (following tribunal’s response to CA, AU, NZ and LatAm) duties regarding information and safety, imposed by Consumer’s Codes, should be very different for soft and hard. For this reason, in 2015, many universities from Australia, Argentina, Canada, Chile, China, Iran, Japan, New Zealand and Thailand, created the “legal sustainability academic group”. The first academic task was the definition of the duty of information for adventure tourism activities as a way to clarify legal regulations for local tourism administrations and acknowledgment forms for providers. Four categories were defined in terms of clarifying the obligation of information: easy, moderate, challenging and strenuous. The second task was to define the content of the acknowledgment form: • The body of the form must be easy to read, short and must not use italics. • Simple, clear and unambiguous words. • Paragraphs regarding risks inherent to the activity, which the participant has to agree with, must be visibly highlighted. • Climate and weather conditions, activities, inherent risks and possible accidents involved must be included. • The participant must be granted enough time to read the document, contemplate risks and sign the form, all before beginning any activities. • Providers must go through safety measures and possible risks involved with the participants, before entering the area where the activities take place. • Date and signature must be put after the last paragraph. • The form must be in the local language and, if possible, translated to the participants’ own language. Cannot be used • Legal terminology (“objective risk”, for example) • Provider terminology (acronyms, class numbers, coordinates, foreign words) • Terms such as: waivers, segregation of responsibilities, exculpatory, etc., given that they imply a wish to exempt and not consent to the activity, which is sanctioned as an unfair term in consumer laws.