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

14 effect to those provisions, regard shall be had to their nature and purpose and to the consequences of their application or non-application ”. In light of the provisions of paragraphs 1 and 2 of Article 9, in order to understand if Article 88 bis conflicts with European law, the first point to be clarified is whether the emergency legislative intervention represents a crucial intervention to safeguard public interests. As long as the rule concerns an attempt to balance private interests, it means, in summary, to understand if in this case the interests at stake, however private, they also have a public impact. This newly introduced procedure of vouchers is evidently more favourable to the tourism businesses, as it seeks to protect them from the high risk of a financial crisis, if not outright bankruptcy. And considering that tourism represents for Italy a good part of the gross domestic product, it cannot be excluded that, although interests are being regulated between individuals (in which the roles are reversed: the “weakest” part is now the professionals, while the “strongest” part are the travellers), they are actually intervening for the public interest. This assessment does not exclude the promotion of inequalities between citizens of the various Member States, unless everyone – even individually –, adopts the use of the voucher precisely according to the methods and terms introduced in Italy; and, since Directive 2015/2302 provides for a strong harmonisation, this probably will result in conflicts 14 . For what concerns domestic courts, they have the authority to assess whether a given provision fits within Art. 9, paragraph 1, and have the possibility to ask the intervention of the Court of Justice. 4. Potential Improvements and Conclusions Considering the situation as a whole, it is clear that the intervention made by the Italian Government, despite having attempted to balance the interests of the parties, has perhaps favoured the objective of trying to avoid the bankruptcy of operators in extreme economic and financial difficulty. The efforts and targets can be achieved, always with difficulty, especially through economic financing policies and direct economic support to operators and families. Nonetheless, and returning to the standard under consideration, it is clear that, on the traveller’s side, recognising he cannot dispose of his own money, then return to the situation prior to the contract stipulation, some 14 With regard to air transport, the European Commission expressed itself in a communication of 18 March 2020 c (2020) 1830 "Interpretative guidelines relating to EU regulations on passenger rights in the context of the evolution of the situation connected to Covid-19".