Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

116 COLLECTIVE COMMENTARY ABOUT THE NEW PACKAGE TRAVEL DIRECTIVE courses, should not be considered as accommodation within the meaning of this Directive. Financial services such as travel insurances should not be considered as travel services. 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. This also means that in cases where, unlike in the case of a cruise, overnight accommodation is provided as part of passenger transport by road, rail, water or air, accommodation should not be considered as a travel service in its own right if the main component is clearly transport”. 4.2.1. Expansion of the concept of package travel and its structural traits There is, in the new Directive, a considerable expansion of the concept of package travel, far surpassing the traditional and static tour package, prepared by the tour operator and bought in person at the travel agency. The new European framework covers, in addition to travel services combined by the operator before being offered to the public (through the traditional printed brochure or in digital format), elements which are subsequently combined in a variety of ways. It is, therefore, necessary to answer three questions: which travel services are linked to the legal concept of package travel, who combines them and within which time frame ? Compared to 1990, we are now seeing a broader scope when setting the concept of package travel. The European legislator states that “travel services may be combined in many different ways” and that the legal concept should cover “all combinations of travel services that display features which travellers typically associate with packages, in particular where separate travel services are combined into a single travel product” (recital 8). The distinctive feature of package travel, as the legislator points out, is how the organiser assumes responsibility for the proper performance of the different travel services, namely hotel, air transport, shows or restaurants that are part of the journey or holiday, which are normally supplied by different service providers and not by the operator itself. This strict liability is complemented by protection against insolvency, which extends to the new category of linked travel arrangements.