Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

ARTICLE 17 | PATRICIA BENAVIDES VELASCO 393 for the design of packages of services 25 , made necessary a revision of the regulation of travel packages. Tourism plays a relevant role in the economy of the European Union and travel packages represent a significant part of the travel market. Furthermore, the European Union authorities have shown a growing interest the tourism industry. This interest has motivated changes in the European policy on consumers, dedicating special attention to issues related to tourism 26 . Undoubtedly, across the twenty-five years of enforcement of the 1990 Directive, the way consumers acquire tourism products and, in particular, trips has considerably changed. The Internet nowadays represents the most common purchase channel for these services. That is why a specific protection for tourists has been brought forward, considering the singularities of the particular means used for contracting 27 . The changes in the habits and patterns of the tourism products consumers have been so intense that it has even changed the way travel contracts are offered to the market, allowing the traveller himself to be the one designing his package travel, or purchasing those services separately, in what we call “individual services”. The new Directive provides a clear redefinition of what must be understood by travel package 28 . It also provides an extension of the legal protection to be conferred to other services that are also considered by the Directive. This is the case of the inclusion within the very concept of travel package of elements that had not been expressly considered insofar. That is the case of the introduction in 25 PEINADO GRACIA, J.I. (2015), “La protección del pasajero en el contrato de viaje combinado y en la prestación de servicios asistidos de viaje: la responsabilidad del transportista aéreo y de los operadores turísticos”, in La responsabilidad del transportista aéreo y la protección de los pasajeros , (Dir. M.ª J. Guerrero), Madrid, Marcial Pons, pp. 513 ff. 26 On this topic, we must not forget that Directive 90/314/CEE was approved under the provisions of the Treaty on the EEC relating to the internal market, as it considered that the tourism industry represents an essential part of such market. The lack of a specific policy in the Treaty on consumers and users was also a reason for that. See, comments on this topic of BENAVIDES VELASCO, P., (2012), “La directiva de viajes combinados: perspectivas de futuro”, in El impacto del derecho de la Unión Europea en el turismo , (Ed. V. Aguado I Cudolá and Ó. Casanovas Ibáñez), Barcelona, Atelier, pp. 135 ff., and, in particular, BENAVIDES VELASCO, P. (2010), “ La política turística de la Unión Europea y el ordenamiento jurídico español”, in Derecho del Turismo Iberoamericano , (Ed. D. Benítez), Buenos Aires, Argentina, LibrosenRed, pp. 143-179. 27 See, MÁRQUEZ LOBILLO, P. (2011)., “El consumidor en la contratación electrónica de servicios turísticos”, Revista de Derecho Mercantil , 282, pp. 209-242. 28 That is how these have been qualified by GONZÁLEZ FERNÁNDEZ, M.ª B (2015a), “Redefiniciones y armonización en materia de viajes combinados”, Revista de Derecho Mercantil , 297, pp. 171 ff., and in “La reforma del marco conceptual europeo de los viajes combinados”, in Nuevos enfoques del Derecho aeronáutico y espacial , (Dir. J.I. Peinado, Ed. M.ª C. Mayorga), Madrid, Marcial Pons, pp. 275 ff.