Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

ARTICLE 3 | VINCENZO FRANCESCHELLI AND CARLOS TORRES 109 covers a period of more than twenty-four hours or includes overnight accommodation” covers a limited number of factual situations. 2.1. Tourism and Definitions in the 1990 and in the 2015 Directives The first approach to a comparative analysis of the two Directives – the 1990 Directive and the 2015 Directive –, in a way makes Tourism Scholars perplexed, not to say disappointed. The 1990 Directive had, in its Title, a reference to tourism, referring to “Package travel, package holidays and package tours”. On the contrary, the 2015 Directive’s Title has no reference to tourism or holidays or vacations, only referring to “Package travel and linked travel arrangements”. In the Subject matter (Art.1), it is possible to read that “The purpose of this Directive (2015) is to contribute to the proper functioning of the internal market and to the achievement of a high and as uniform as possible level of consumer protection by approximating certain aspects of the laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States in respect of contracts between travellers and traders relating to package travel and linked travel arrangements”. Tourism Scholars can console themselves by thinking that, in a sense, it is a new and broader approach that takes in to account the contributions of Tourism Studies. In fact, it has been noticed that the subjective scope of the 2015 Directive “is broader with respect to Council Directive 90/314EEC. This Directive should apply to business travel, including member of liberal profession”. In other words, the protection that has been accomplished for tourist is now extended to travellers as well. 2.2. Comparing Definitions The profound changes occurred in Tourism, in the last the twenty-five years, find confirmation in the comparison of the set of Definitions present in the two Directives. By comparing the two sets of definitions, it is impressive how the number of definitions has increased in the 2015/2302 Directive, in respect to the 1990/314 Directive. The latter contained, in article 2, five (5) definitions: ‘package’, ‘organiser’, ‘retailer’, ‘consumer’ and ‘contract’, while the former counts sixteen (16): ‘travel service’, ‘package’, ‘package travel contract’, ‘start of the package’, ‘linked travel arrangement’, ‘traveller’, ‘trader’, ‘organiser’, ‘retailer’, ‘establishment’, ‘durablemedium’, ‘unavoidable andextraordinary circumstances’, ‘lack of conformity’, ‘minor’, ‘point of sale’ and ‘repatriation’. We must, therefore, proceed to examine each of the sixteen definitions, comparing them, when possible, to the 1990/314 Directive.