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

 in case the new price is lower, the balance of the original amount remains, which the customer will be able to use for the next trip (i.e. the difference is not refunded). On 7 May, according to the situation in the state, the Government of Latvia decided to prolong a state of emergency until 9 June, with, however, several precaution measures weakened. This includes, as of 15 May, the state borders between Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia opening, which will revive the domestic and cross-Baltic country tourism. Nevertheless, international flights from Riga remain suspended, with a few exceptions for Latvian national airline AirBaltic to operate daily flights from Riga to Frankfurt and Oslo, as well as to Tallinn and Vilnius. Flights are open only for passengers who are citizens or permanent resident destination country, transit passengers or for those who hold and official permission to work at the destination country. 3. Tourism Industry in Latvia The tourism industry was the first to face the crisis caused by COVID-19, as the State closed or restricted economic activity. The coronavirus epidemic has left thousands of people unemployed in Latvia, with the transport and tourism sectors suffering the most as a result of the crisis, by being forced to stop due to the State’s prevention measures. In all tourism sectors, at the end of March and April of this year, there was a decrease of almost 100% in turnover, causing losses to the industry of about 110 million euros, including losses to travel agents and operators (at least 33 million euros), due to cancelled hotel and restaurant reservations, as well as cancelled conferences and seminars that were supposed to take place in Riga. The accommodation sector accounts losses of 21 million euros and the catering sector of 56 million euros. All this has directly affected more than 3,000 small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as created a catastrophic situation in the workforce, with more than 25 thousand employees have been affected. During the time of strict restrictions in movement between countries, the tour operators have been experiencing a massive drop in sales, as there are no new bookings, only cancellations. They cannot return deposits to customers, as these funds were transferred to the third parties (such as airlines or hotels). A notable fact is that the six largest tour operators repatriated 2,670 Latvian residents at their own cost, which amounted to about 700,000 €. The Ministry of Economics of Latvia will call upon the Government to cover these costs. At the same time, the Ministry will call for support