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

Asociación Americana de Derecho Internacional Privado (ASADIP) 67 had the honour to serve as the author of the Brazilian proposal to draft a Convention on the protection of tourists as consumers (“Proposal concerning a Draft Convention on Co-operation and Access to Justice for International Tourists”) at the Hague Conference of Private International Law 68 . This Proposal aims to create a global network of consumer agencies to inform and help tourists to get access to justice (small claims, ADR and court proceedings) and has been strongly supported by the other Latin-American countries, China, India, Russia and emergent economies in general 69 . The good results of the MERCOSUR Tourist’s Network and the positive experience during the World FIFA Cup, in 2014, and the Rio Olympic Games, in 2016, with the proposed ex-ante intervention of consumer agencies to inform and help international tourists – contributing to the prevention of damages – have consolidated the Proposal of the Brazilian Government 70 . The second draft of the Proposal was presented in 2015 and contains ten articles 71 . In March 2018, a feasibility and desirability study on the Draft Convention on Co- Operation and Access to Justice for International Tourists was presented and, in August 2018, the first Expert Group was convened. The following year, a second Expert Group took place, and the consensus was reached in a soft law approach and the need of a second Study, now about the procedural aspects of the subject. 67 Vid . Rio de Janeiro Declaration of the ASADIP on the need of more protection for international tourists in 2008, available a t http://asadip.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/carta-de-rio-de-janeiro8asadip230312en- espac3b1ol-y-portviii.pdf. 68 LIMA MARQUES, C. (2014). The Brazilian “Draft Convention on Co-operation in Respect of Tourists and Visitors Abroad” at the Hague Conference and the UN World Tourism Organization’s Draft Convention. In Moreno Rodriguez, J. & Lima Marques, C. Los servicios en el Derecho Internacional Privado – Jornadas de la ASADIP 2014 , Porto Alegre: ASADIP, pp. 823-848. 69 MARQUES, Claudia Lima. Towards a global approach to protect foreign tourists: building governance through a new cooperation net in consumer and tourist issues. In: SIERRALTA, Anibal, & MARQUES, Claudia Lima. (Eds.). Derecho internacional, mundialización y gobernanza. (pp. 425-455). Asunción: CEDEP/ASADIP, 2012, pp. 449 & ff. 70 Vid . Prel. Doc. No. 2, of January - Proposal by the Government of Brazil on a draft convention on co- operation and access to justice for international tourists, available at https://www.hcch.net/en/projects/legislative-projects/protection-of-tourists. 71 Available i n https://assets.hcch.net/docs/74b12153-45a4-45fa-a86e-814fa5bf9d2a.pdf ( accessed on 28 July 2020).