Tourism Law in Europe

current crisis 3 . The year 2020 was likely the worst year in modern history, not only in terms of tourism. The whole world was paralysed and influenced by the global SARS-CoV-2 (i.e. COVID-19) pandemic. Security and preventive measures aimed to counter the spread of the disease and measures to support the economy were taken in almost all the countries of the world, including the Czech Republic. A number of various measures are in place to support Czech entrepreneurs, with the primary aim to boost liquidity and preserve jobs. General measures have been adopted to help all businesses across the board (such as the COVID guarantee programmes, the Antivirus scheme and tax-liberalisation packages), along with specific support for tourism (reduction of VAT on selected tourist services, COVID-Spas, COVID-Accommodation, COVID-Tourism, COVID-Schools in Nature, COVID-Travel Agency Guarantees, COVID- Travel Agencies II, among others). Businesses engaged in tourism can also make use of related support programmes, such as COVID-Rent, COVID-Bus, COVID-Culture and so on. II. Public Law Regulation of Tourism Activities in the tourism sector are usually regarded as a “trade” within the meaning of Act No. 455/1991 Coll., on business in trade (hereinafter the “Trade Act”). In exceptional cases, certain spa procedures may also constitute healthcare services, falling outside the mentioned Act. The Trade Act divides trades into vocational, professional, licenced (concession) and unqualified trades. The individual annexes to the Act give together an exhaustive list of these trades. A trade authorisation (i.e. a trade licence) can be granted if the entrepreneur meets the conditions laid down by the Trade Act. These comprise general and special conditions. General conditions are those that must be met by every entrepreneur (trader) regardless of what trade he/she intends to operate. Special conditions are then set for vocational, professional and licenced (concession) trades. They typically include certain education or experience attained in the field. 3 Revenues from tourism – in terms of methodology, this figure refers rather to income from international tourism, available in : https://www.cnb.cz/cs/statistika/platebni_bilance_stat/platebni_bilance_q/index.ht ml.