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

procedural and ODR solutions) 35 , as we can see in the new international efforts on Tourist Protection. The global substantive UNWTO Draft of a “Convention on the protection of tourists and tourism service providers” did not accomplish its purpose, being now incorporated into the UNWTO Ethical Code (soft law). The Brazilian suggestion concerning a global Convention on Cooperation and Access of Justice to International Tourist has also had difficulties to be accepted by developed countries, becoming only a soft law or guiding principles about ODR in Tourism. Let us see these challenges and changes, one by one. II.1. The Rise of Consumer Law, the Changes in the Global Mass Tourism and the Decline of Travel Agencies According to the UNWTO, the number of international arrivals reached 1.5 billion persons, for the first time in modern history, in 2019 36 . This new phenomenon of mass international tourism is accompanied by the worldwide development of consumer law since the 1960s. The UN Guidelines on Consumer Protection came into force 1985, being reviewed in 1999 and 2015. As David Harland stated, the “ adoption of the Guidelines marked a growing recognition by the United Nations of the international dimension of consumer protection and of the fact that consumer policy could not be viewed solely in national domestic terms ” 37 . Thus, more than 30 years later, markets are becoming more globalised, consumption is highly digitalised and at a distance 38 , and, up until last year, 1.5 billion people were crossing national borders to tour and consume internationally. 35 See GONZÁLEZ CAMPOS, J. D. Diversification, spécialisation, flexibilisation et matérialisation des régles de Droit internatioanal privé. Cours général, in Recueil des Cours, 2000, t. 287, pp. 67 & 36 UNWTO. World Tourism Barometer – v. 18. January 2020. United Nations World Tourism Organization, https://www.e-unwto.org/toc/wtobarometereng/18/1. 37 HARLAND, David. The United Nations Guidelines for Consumer Protection: Their Impact in the First Decade. In I. Ramsay (Ed.), Consumer Law in the Global Economy . Asgate, Brookfield, USA, 1996, p. 1. 38 MICKLITZ, Hans-W., & SAUMIER, Geneviève. Enforcement and Effectiveness of Consumer Law, in MICKLITZ, Hans-W., & SAUMIER, Geneviève (Eds). Enforcement and Effectiveness of Consumer Law . Springer/AIDC, 2018, p. 3.