Tourism Law in Europe

22 global pandemic had a serious impact on carriers, organisers of package tours and providers of tourism services. At the same time travel bans, closing borders, or introducing quarantine periods became a real challenge trying to ensure the protection of travellers’ rights. Beyond assisting tourism businesses with financial support, Member States still had to balance the duties and interests of the parties involved in tourism relations and, at the same time, to maintain a high level of consumer protection. Not all Member States successfully coped with this task and Lithuania was one of them. The response from national authorities to the emergency due to the COVID-19, resulted in changing the regulation on travel package contracts giving the priority to securing travel businesses and avoiding economic disruption, yet the measures taken impaired consumer protection and were not in line with the EU legislation. After the Government, due to the spread of coronavirus infection, from 16 March until 16 June 2020, introduced quarantine period 43 , throughout the territory of Lithuania, shops (with the exception for groceries and pharmacies), bars, cafes, beauty salons were closed, events and mass gatherings were banned, travelling abroad was restricted or cancelled, the activities of educational institutions were suspended. Such situation has affected consumers, leading to violations of their rights. It should be recalled that in the presence of the pandemic, unprecedented challenges were faced such as mass cancellations of already booked holidays, when the refund requests from travellers far exceeded the level of new bookings. Workload of the State Consumer Rights Protection Authority has increased dramatically. Authority announces that during the period starting from the 1 January until 21 April 2020, the number of consumer complaints regarding cancelled trips increased almost 8 times more than during the same period last year 44 . It became apparent that national government must introduce necessary changes at the national level as the alternative to reimbursement for cancelled package travel contracts had to be found. Meanwhile, the decisions taken by the national legislator raised reasonable 43 Resolution of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania, 14 March 2020, No. 207. 44 Statistical data available in https://www.vvtat.lt/informacija-vartotojams-koronaviruso- laikotarpiu/677/pandemijos-laikotarpiu-rekordinis-vartotoju-skundu-skaicius:1413.