Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

654 COLLECTIVE COMMENTARY ABOUT THE NEW PACKAGE TRAVEL DIRECTIVE It is interesting to note that the ‘recommended practices’ of the UNWTO Draft Convention (Annex II, Chapter 8), in case of termination of the package travel contract before the start of the package, and about assistance obligation in case of unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances (Annex II, Chapter 10) are very similar to Article 10 of the CCV Convention. As there were no conflicts of law rules on the Draft to the “UNWTO Convention on the protection of tourists and tourism service providers”, because its main purpose was to clarify the responsibilities of the host country, the country of origin of the tourist, the country of the origin of the travel organiser and the travel organiser itself, in case of catastrophes or emergencies 65 , the Brazilian Government suggested a Private International Law Draft Convention on the Hague Conference of Private International Law. In 2018, the UNWTO sent a letter to the Hague Conference assuring the complementarity of both Drafts Conventions, and, in the next year, the UNWTO Draft Convention was not approved, being transformed in part of the Ethical Code. The new international effort to protect tourists was, at the time of writing, ongoing at the Hague Conference. Following the MERCOSUR experience regarding consumer protection focused on provisions for conflict resolution regarding tourists within the member countries, the Brazilian Government drafted a proposal for an International Convention in order to protect international tourists as consumers presented at the Hague Conference of Private International Law: The Project concerning a possible future Convention on Co-operation and Access to Justice for International Tourists (the socalled ‘Tourism Project’ 66 ). The author of this article, as President of Asociación Americana de Derecho Internacional Privado (ASADIP) 67 had the honour to 65 Vid . Explanatory Memorandum, available at https://www.eumonitor.eu/9353000/1/j4nvhdfdk3hydzq_ j9vvik7m1c3gyxp/vkd2qajb8xzd (accessed on 28 July 2020). 66 Article 1 of the Draft Convention states the objectives of the proposed Convention: “ a) Provide international tourists who are habitually resident in, or nationals of, any Contracting State and who are travelling to, or in, another Contracting State («the State visited»), with access to judicial proceedings, and alternative procedures for the settlement of disputes, such as conciliation, mediation or arbitration including complaint procedures for the protection of consumers’ interests available in the State visited on an equal footing with persons who are nationals of and habitually resident in that State; b) Provide such tourists with accessible information on such procedures, and with a uniform multilingual form for complaints regarding common travel and related issues, as well as an accessible channel to present such complaints so that prompt and expeditious may be taken to resolve these issues; Establish a system of cooperation between authorities of each Contracting State ”, available at https://www.hcch.net/en/projects/legislative-projects/protection-of-tourists (accessed on 22 July 2018). 67 Vid . Rio de Janeiro Declaration of the ASADIP on the need of more protection for international tourists in 2008, available at http://asadip.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/carta-de-rio-de-janeiro8asadip230312en-espac3b1ol- -y-portviii.pdf.