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

1 The Czech Fight over Vouchers 1 Klara Dvorakova 2 I. Introduction; II. What Has Been the Czech Reaction to COVID-19?; III. What Do the Limitations Mean for Czech Tour Operators?; III.1. What is a clear situation?; III.2. What is a controversial situation?; III.3. What is a combination of a clear and controversial situation?; III.4. Voucher as a type of renegotiation of the package travel contract; IV. Czech Lex Voucher; V. Conclusions: A Voucher World. I. Introduction The primary goal of this report is to describe the current situation in the Czech Republic, with a specific focus on the impact it has had on Czech tour operators and their clients. The report will describe three types of situations that might have different effects on the duty of tour operators to provide a full refund. Afterwards, the report will explain possible solutions under the general principles applied in Czech law, and finally, the content of Lex Voucher , which is a new legislation adopted in the Czech Republic with the aim of helping tour operators. II. What Has Been the Czech Reaction to COVID-19? Starting on 13 March 2020, the whole territory of the Czech Republic has been declared in a state of emergency, which had originally been declared for 30 days, having now, however, been extended until the end of April. As of date, we are still in the state of emergency. During the state of emergency, certain rights and freedoms may be limited for the time and to the extent necessary, the ones that are most relevant for the tourism sector are as follows:  Czech citizens and foreigners living in the Czech Republic are, at the moment, not allowed to leave the country (with some exceptions), and a similar ban applies to foreigners who would like to come to the Czech Republic and do not have permanent or a long-term temporary residence;  all stores are closed except for grocery stores, sanitary, pharmacies, fuels and similar;  there is a ban on the gathering of the public in food-service establishments, with the exception of establishments not serving the general public; 1 Speech presented on the International Web Conference on The Legal Impacts of COVID-19 in the Travel, Tourism and Hospitality Industry on 22 April 2020. 2 Attorney and travel law specialist; Holubová advokáti s.r.o. ; klara.dvorakova@holubova.cz .