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

(b) the organiser is prevented from performing the contract because of unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances and notifies the traveller of the termination of the contract without undue delay before the start of the package. 4. The organiser shall provide any refunds required under paragraphs 2 and 3 or, with respect to paragraph 1, reimburse any payments made by or on behalf of the traveller for the package minus the appropriate termination fee. Such refunds or reimbursements shall be made to the traveller without undue delay and in any event not later than 14 days after the package travel contract is terminated. 5. With respect to off-premises contracts, Member States may provide in their national law that the traveller has the right to withdraw from the package travel contract within a period of 14 days without giving any reason. Consequently, Directive (EU) 2015/2302 contemplates two scenarios A) The possibility that it is the traveller can terminate the package travel contract at any time before the start of the package and B) The possibility that it is the organiser who terminates the package travel contract. Both scenarios have occurred and are currently occurring due to COVID-19. As mentioned, the Directive specifies in whereas 31, some circumstances that would justify the termination of the contract and the right of withdrawal, including significant risks to human health such as the outbreak of a serious disease at the travel destination, which make it impossible to travel safely to the destination as agreed in the package travel contract. The Directive thus contemplates the case that there may be unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances in the place of destination or in the vicinity that significantly affect the execution of the package trip or the transport of passengers to the place of destination and this is directly applicable to the health crisis caused by COVID-19. Under these circumstances, the traveller shall have the right to terminate the package travel contract before the start of the package without paying any termination fee in the event of unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances occurring at the place of destination or its immediate vicinity and significantly affecting the performance of the package, or which significantly affect the carriage of passengers to the destination. In the event of termination of the package travel contract under this circumstances, the