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

of the hospitality operators and illegitimate from the point of view of compliance with the law, even before those of the contract. The question appears more uncertain when concerning transport contracts and, in particular, air transport. The problem in Italy was immediately raised by consumer protection associations. In airline practice, it has been verified that low fares carriers have almost always refunded the ticket price, while traditional airlines have very often opted to issue the voucher. To put it briefly, the case of cancellation of the transport by the carrier falls within the scope of the European Union regulations on transport (air, maritime, rail, bus), which provide for the passenger’s right to choose between an alternative journey or the reimbursement of the amount paid. These principles have been confirmed by the European Commission through the publication of the “Interpretative guidelines on passenger rights regulations”. Nonetheless, if the passenger cannot – or no longer wishes to – travel because of the COVID-19 outbreak, the carrier has no legal obligation at the European level. Moreover, it is possible that national measures taken to deal with passengers may differ from one Member State to another and are not addressed in the Commission's guidelines. However, when the passenger cannot travel due to the measures taken under COVID-19, this is outside the cases governed by the EU regulations and, therefore, reference should be made to the national law. According to it, in certain circumstances, the carrier should reimburse the amount paid for the travel or issue a voucher of the same amount to be used within one year of the issue, within fifteen days from the communication whereby a passenger informs on the impossibility to travel. As far as the package travel contract is concerned, under certain circumstances, the Italian law allowed the organiser to issue a voucher in favour of the traveller, instead of reimbursing the price. Once again, according to Article 28 of Law-Decree No. 9/2020, the potestative right of option – the power of choice – is up to the tour operator, and the traveller must surrender to the choice made by the organiser. Italian tour operators have always chosen to issue the voucher to their customers, with some of them even allowing the voucher to be transferred to another traveller who meets the conditions applicable to that contract. However, there are also some practical problems in managing the voucher, for example, the voucher is usually personal and cannot be transferred to another traveller, or some tour operators may not allow the change of destination. Furthermore, the annual deadline exposes the traveller to the risk that the voucher expires and cannot be redeemed. Perhaps, it is possible to envisage some solutions to facilitate the use of the voucher, in case the situation continues for an extended period of time: