Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

110 COLLECTIVE COMMENTARY ABOUT THE NEW PACKAGE TRAVEL DIRECTIVE 2.3. Clear and Obscure Definition To comment on a definition – in a Commentary – is based on the axiom that a definition must be clear and self-explanatory. An obscure definition is in itself a contradiction, and so it should not be considered as a definition. Therefore, the task of the interpreter is confined and limited, meaning to understand if a definition is clear, in harmony with the context, adequate or new in relation with the previous disposition of the law. 3. THE DIRECTIVE 2015/2302 / EU ON PACKAGE TRAVEL AND LINKED TRAVEL ARRANGEMENTS In examining the set of Definition of the 2015 Directive, let us make some preliminary remarks: 1.The first preliminary remark concerns the terminology used in the Directive. In the Title, in the body of the Directive, and in the definitions, the term ‘travel’ is used, as opposed to the terms ‘tourism’ or ‘tourist’, which seldom are. The reference to ‘tourism’ is still present in Recital 2, when we read ‘ Tourism plays an important role in the economy of the Union, and package travel, package holidays and package tours (‘packages’) represent a significant proportion of the travel market’. The reference to ‘tourist’ is present in Recital 18, as well as in Definitions 1(d), “any other tourist service not intrinsically part of a travel service…”, and in Definition 2, “A combination of travel services where not more than one type of travel service as referred to in point (a), (b) or (c) of point 1 is combined with one or more tourist services”. ‘Tourism’ is further mentioned in Definition 5: “Where not more than one type of travel service as referred to in point (a), (b) or (c) of point 1 and one or more tourist services as referred to in point (d) of point 1 are purchased, they do not constitute a linked travel arrangement”. The term ‘tourist’ also appears in Article 5, points a.iii and a.vii, of the Directive: “(a) the main characteristics of the travel services: (…) (iii) the location, main features and, where applicable, tourist category of the accommodation under the rules of the country of destination (…) (vii) where the traveller’s benefit from other tourist services depends on effective oral communication, the language in which those services will be carried out”. Finally, there is a reference to “ tourist taxes” in Article 10 of the Directive.