The Legal Impacts of COVID-19 in the Travel, Tourism and Hospitality Industry

6 announcing the offer of packages to be performed in the national territory, due to the allegedly poor willingness of consumers to take long journeys. 3. Transport contracts In fact, Art. 28, paragraph 1, of the Decree-Law No. 9 of 2020, states that all transports arrangements and travels that should have been carried out in the so-called quarantine, home-stay or hospitalisation periods, arranged for passengers, as well as those departing from or arriving in Italy up to 13 April were terminated automatically by force of law. There is an absolute presumption that, in such cases, the impossibility of the trip depended on the contagion, and the customer only has to declare that he found himself in one of these situations, a fact which is easy to prove by giving notice within thirty days from when the isolation phase ceasing or the departure date. In the fifteen days following the receipt of the notice, the carrier can choose to either return the price or issue the so-called " voucher ; the same principle applies to cruises. The carrier indeed always chooses the second option and prefers to offer a package or service, similar to the original one, at a later time, rather than return the payment, with the risk of finding itself in economic hardships later on. The company assumes a similar commitment towards the travel organiser, who, in this way, is not affected by this component of its expenses, and the economic weight falls only on the carrier since the circumstances making the journey impossible also affect its obligation to provide a service. Therefore, if the organiser issues the so-called " voucher " to his client, the carrier will, in turn, be bound to offer the customer a credit to be collected within a year, with an obvious advantage, because, unlike what happens to the consumer, this credit limits the overall costs of business for the company. The Decree-Law No. 9 of 2020 has two objectives, to preserve the immediate liquidity of the carriers and to mitigate their burden, even with the use of unusual solutions such as the recognition of a credit equal to the amount paid. This credit can be collected only through entering into another contract, within