Sustainable Tourism Law

THE UNWTO DRAFT CONVENTION ON THE PROTECTION OF TOURISTS 211 I), package travel (Annex II) and accommodation service providers (Annex III), respectively. The General provisions contain legal provisions featuring the general character that traditionally forms international conventions – from principles to technical provisions – together with some “definitions” (Art. 3) also applicable to the rules set by the Annexes. With regards to this, it is interesting to analyse the concept of “Tourist”, meant as “a person taking a trip which includes an overnight stay to a main destination outside his/her usual environment, for less than a year, for any main purpose (business, leisure or other personal purpose) other than to be employed by a resident entity in the country or place visited” 29 . The definition suggested by Art. 3, lett. a , is significantly relevant in the structure of the draft International Convention, both because the “tourist” is the subject around which the discipline introduced by Annex I – Assistance in emergency situations is organized, and also because the “tourist” is the constant reference point when travel contracts regulation is taken into account ( Annex II – Package travel ), as well as accommodation services ( Annex III – Accommodation ). The word “tourist”, based on the notion traditionally adopted by UNWTO, has been preferred to other terms with the same general meaning that have been used in various ways in different legal contexts, such as for instance: “visitor” or “guest”, together with “consumer” or “traveller”, as well as “passenger”, which is predominantly used to govern contracts and transport services. Actually, the term “consumer” is mentioned twice in the Preamble to the Draft Convention: the first referring to “tourists” (“tourists, as consumers”); the second time it is mentioned indirectly through a reference to the aforementioned Guidelines for Consumer Protection approved by the United Nations General Assembly. The provisional draft privileges the use of the term “tourist” even when compared to the word “traveller”; the latter appears only twice in the document and always in connection to the word “business” and used as an adjective: the first time in Art. 1, standard 1.2, of Annex II on Package travel 30 , and also a 29 In a previous unofficial version of 2012, the notion of “tourist” was limited to “a person who celebrates a contract of travel package with a trip organizer” (Attachment I, Chapter I of the Minute, Second Draft). 30 According to the definition of the draft Convention “a person travelling for purposes related to his/her trade, craft, business or profession (business traveller) is considered as a tourist, unless the package is purchased on the basis of a general agreement for the arrangement of business travel between a trader and another natural or legal person who is acting for purposes relating to his trade, business, craft or profession”.