Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

ARTICLE 3 | VINCENZO FRANCESCHELLI AND CARLOS TORRES 127 4.10. Tourist, Consumer and Traveller Following the idea that every tourist travels, but not all travellers are tourists, it is historically correct to assert that tourism originates from travel contracts. The definition of traveller, as expressed in the Directive, deserves further consideration in regards to the use of the terms ‘consumer’, ‘tourist’ and ‘travellers’. It determines, in a way, the unification – as far as the Directive is concerned – of the status and of the protection of the persons involved. “From consumer to tourist to traveler”, we could say. Not all travelers are tourist, but all tourists travel… Protecting travelers means protecting tourists. 4.11. Definition (7) – Trader The seventh definition pertains to the trader, who is “any natural person or any legal person, irrespective of whether privately or publicly owned, who is acting, including through any other person acting in his name or on his behalf, for purposes relating to his trade, business, craft or profession in relation to contracts covered by this Directive, whether acting in the capacity of organiser, retailer, trader facilitating a linked travel arrangement or as a travel service provider”. This is a broad definition that includes any subject connected to a tourist activity. 4.11.1. Going from the duality of organising agency / sales agency to a multiplicity of operators The 1990 model was based on the duality between tour operator & travel agency, while, in 2015, the digital juncture came to comprise amultiplicity of operators beyond traditional ones, for instance, hotels, airlines, rent-a-cars that combine or provide a combination of services. The entities managing local lodging – hostels or apartments leased through AirBnb – can also take on the mantle of organisers. With the New Directive, the classic legal status of travel agent exclusivity that has been in effect in some Member States comes to an end, and so these companies will face the competition of tourism service providers in general, namely hotels, airlines, rent-a-cars and local lodging, who were hitherto legally restricted from those areas. What was left of the Bolkestein Directive, published almost 15 years ago, was overturned by the 2015 Package Travel Directive. Whereas in the 1990 Package Travel Directive – which has shaped the current legislation regarding travel agents in some Member States – only the organising agency and the vendor were contemplated, in the present case the already mentioned definition of operator in Article 3/7 is significantly far-reaching.