Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

1230 COLLECTIVE COMMENTARY ABOUT THE NEW PACKAGE TRAVEL DIRECTIVE protection and information policy (4) invites the Commission to study, inter alia , tourism and, if appropriate, to put forward suitable proposals, with due regard for their significance for consumer protection and the effects of differences in Member States’ legislation on the proper functioning of the common market; (5) Whereas in the resolution on a Community policy on tourism on 10 April 1984 (5) the Council welcomed theCommission’s initiative indrawing attention to the importance of tourism and took note of the Commission’s initial guidelines for a Community policy on tourism; (6) Whereas the Commission communication to the Council entitled ‘A New Impetus for Consumer Protection Policy’, which was approved by resolution of the Council on 6 May 1986 (6) , lists in paragraph 37, among the measures proposed by the Commission, the harmonization of legislation on packages; (7) Whereas tourism plays an increasingly important role in the economies of the Member States; whereas the package system is a fundamental part of tourism; whereas the package travel industry in Member States would be stimulated to greater growth and productivity if at least a minimum of common rules were adopted in order to give it a Community dimension; whereas this would not only produce benefits for Community citizens buying packages organized on the basis of those rules, but would attract tourists from outside the Community seeking the advantages of guaranteed standards in packages; (8) Whereas disparities in the rules protecting consumers in different Member States are a disincentive to consumers in one Member State from buying packages in another Member State; (9) Whereas this disincentive is particularly effective in deterring consumers from buying packages outside their own Member State, and more effective than it would be in relation to the acquisition of other services, having regard to the special nature of the services supplied in a package which generally involve the expenditure of substantial amounts of money in advance and the supply of the services in a State other than that in which the consumer is resident; (10) Whereas the consumer should have the benefit of the protection introduced by this Directive irrespective of whether he is a direct contracting party, a transferee or a member of a group on whose behalf another person has concluded a contract in respect of a package; (4) OJ No C 165, 23. 6. 1981, p. 24. (5) OJ No C 115, 30. 4. 1984, p. 1. (6) OJ No C 118, 7. 3. 1986, p. 28.