Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

BULGARIA | DESISLAVA HINEVA 693 As regards compliance with the information requirements laid down in Chapter II of the New Package Travel Directive the burden of proof shall be on the trader, while the Law on Tourism in Bulgaria assigns it to the tour operator. The Law on Tourism requires all the organisers and traders of package travels and linked travel arrangements that are based on the territory of Bulgaria to have valid liability insurance. Such insurance is one of the prerequisites for obtaining the operating license in Bulgaria. The law requires it to be presented no later than 7 days from the initial company registration and it has to be renewed annually. As per the regulations set by the New Package Travel Directive all organisers not established in a Member State which sell or offer for sale packages in a Member State, or which by any means direct such activities to a Member State, shall be obliged to provide the security in accordance with the national law of that Member State. The transposition of this clause in the Bulgarian LawonTourismobliges all tour operators, travel agents and traders not established in a Member State which sell or offer for sale packages in Bulgaria to comply with the Bulgarian law. While supervision of offline- -based organisers and traders is relatively easy to be done, it is challenging such a wide scope of organisers and traders to be checked for compliance, when it comes to online travel platforms acting mainly as traders that are accessible to all travellers worldwide. In addition to that, organizers do not always use intermediaries to sell their travel packages. In many cases they are selling directly to the traveller, which minimizes the effect of obliging the retailer established in a Member State to comply with Chapters IV and V of the New Package Travel Directive. In order to facilitate the business players, both traditional and non-traditional to easily adopt the regulations of the New Package Travel Directive, the Ministry of Tourism has published practical guidelines for compliance with the changes. Illustrative examples have been included in the guidelines for the purpose of better presentation. In addition to that, a campaign aiming at raising the consumers’ awareness of the extended protection by the New Package Travel Directive has started in 2019. This campaign is supported by ECC-net and it includes a mobile application providing useful information about the European travellers’ rights. 4. ASSESSMENT OF THE IMPACT OF THE NEW PACKAGE TRAVEL DIRECTIVE IN BULGARIA The official authorities have not done an official assessment of the impact of the New Package Travel Directive on both the travel companies and the Bulgarian