Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

BULGARIA | DESISLAVA HINEVA 695 • The Law onTourism lays down specific rules for the traders facilitating linked travel arrangements to obtain liability insurance that is specifically valid for this type of travel arrangements. This raises the question: how to distinguish which company is selling packages and which is facilitating linked travel arrangements. Two controversial aspects can be found here. The first one is related to the requirements for registration of the tourism companies in Bulgaria. The Law onTourism requires mandatory registration of the tourism companies either as tour operators, travel agents or both (Article 61(6)). No specific information about registration of traders facilitating linked travel arrangements as independent business units is included, or contracting between tour operators/travel agents and traders facilitating linked travel arrangements (Article 71 Law on Tourism). In practice, all travel companies such as airlines, tour operators, travel agents, hoteliers can act as traders facilitating linked travel arrangements. The second controversial aspect is related to the insolvency protection for the travellers purchasing linked travel arrangements which is covered by the mandatory liability insurance defined in the Law on Tourism. On the one hand, there is a requirement for all the tour operators/travel agents to obtain valid liability insurance and to present it upon registration (Article 97(1) Law on Tourism). On the other hand, similar insurance covering linked travel arrangements is required for all the traders acting as facilitators (Article 97(2) Law on Tourism), and this information has to be published on the official website of the Ministry of Tourism. A quick check on the official website does not show any information about valid insurancepolicies for traders facilitating linkedtravel arrangements, even for online travel platforms traditionally acting as such. Moreover, such type of insurance policies valid specifically for linked travel arrangements cannot be found on offer by Bulgarian insurance companies. Improved consumer protection cannot be ensured without an adequate control by the relevant authorities. The main challenge is how the Ministry of Tourism and the Commission for Consumer Protection will effectively track the number of traders of newly-introduced travel arrangements and to ensure that they will comply with the provisions in Law on Tourism, especially those online platforms operating outside the EU. The other challenge will be how to raise the consumer awareness of the rights raising by the New Package Travel Directive. In order to maximize the effect of the new protection regulations, the travellers should be made aware of their existence.