Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

1148 COLLECTIVE COMMENTARY ABOUT THE NEW PACKAGE TRAVEL DIRECTIVE do: the moment of surprise or even some form of psychological pressure in the form of presented attraction of the time-limited profitability of the offer and limited possibilities of verifying the real profitability of the offer. 3. SOME QUESTIONABLE IMPROVEMENTS The completely new regulation of linked travel arrangements (hereinafter refer also as “LTA”) aimed at protecting travellers against the bankruptcy of a package travel organiser or trader facilitating linked travel arrangements, including the possibility of securing repatriation may be questionable, particularly by its novelty, to what extent this protection will be used, especially with regard to the relatively broad and flexible setting of the legal definition of the package itself. The immediate impact on the business travel market in Slovakia has been however significant. Under previous regulations we have differentiated between tour operator (cestovná kancelária) as an organiser and travel agency (cestovná agentúra) as a retailer. The organiser had been the person responsible for the performance of package. And only the organiser had been obliged to provide sufficient evidence of security for the refund of money paid over and for the repatriation of the consumer in the event of insolvency in the sense of article 7 of the old Directive. The need to provide insolvency protection and to secure the travellers’ repatriation in the area of linked travel arrangements opened up the question whether the retailers-travel agencies should be obliged to have a security. Until now facilitating LTA had been one of the typical acivities of travel agencies. Under New Package Travel Act the distinction between tour operator (cestovná kancelária) and travel agency (cestovná agentúra) has been preserved, but solely tour operator (cestovná kancelária) as organiser is allowed to facilitate LTA. Travel agencies therefore opted for one of two possibilities; to upgrade for tour operator status and to pay for security or to restrict their activities as they are prohibited from facilitating LTA. The accuracy improvement of some situations (see previous part 2) simultaneously has led to the questioning of others. In this way, doubts arise from point 17 of the Directive’s Preamble in relation to boarding 28 . To explain 28 In addition, services which are intrinsically part of another travel service should not be considered as travel services in their own right. This includes, for instance, transport of luggage provided as part of carriage of passengers, minor transport services such as carriage of passengers as part of a guided tour or transfers between a hotel and an airport or a railway station, meals, drinks and cleaning provided as part of accommodation, or access to on-site facilities such as a swimming pool, sauna, spa or gym included for hotel guests.