Sustainable Tourism Law

THE UNWTO DRAFT CONVENTION ON THE PROTECTION OF TOURISTS 229 -keeper’s responsibility to be harmonised with the domestic law of individual signing States. Last but not least, it has been reported by many that the draft Convention omits any reference to matters relating to the jurisdiction 94 applicable to the cases regulated 95 and the alternative dispute resolution 96 , which is also fundamentally important to ensure the effectiveness and efficacy of the “Protection of Tourists and the Rights and Obligations of Tourism Service Providers”. It is significant, in this regard, to recall the proposed “draft Convention on Co-operation in Respect of Tourists and Visitors Abroad” presented for the first time in April 2013 by the Brazilian Government during the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH), which might complement the set of international rules, providing a significant contribution to the protection of tourists 97 . The Brazilian proposal became the “ draft Convention on Co-operation and Access to Justice for International Tourists ” (the so-called “Tourism Project”) of the HCCH, according to the determination of the Conseil sur les affaires générales et la politique de la Conférence , which in March 2017 presented a specific 94 In particular, see S. Feliu Álvarez de Sotomayor, Viajes combinados y servicios de viaje vinculados [Directiva (UE) 2015/2302] Cuestiones de ley aplicable , Reus Editorial, Madrid, 2018, p. 45 ss.; (p. 17 ss.). 95 See M. Lopez de Gonzalo, La nuova direttiva sui pacchetti turistici e la normativa internazionale e comunitaria in tema di trasporto di persone , cit., p. 417. 96 See, especially, Regulation (EU) No. 524/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2013 on online dispute resolution for consumer disputes and amending Regulation (EC) No. 2006/2004 and Directive 2009/22/EC (Regulation on consumer ODR) – completed by the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/1051 of July 1, 2015, on how to perform the functions of the online dispute resolution platform, the characteristics of the electronic complaint form and the modalities of cooperation between contracts pursuant to Regulation (EU) No. 524/2013 – and Directive 2013/11/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2013 on alternative dispute resolution for consumer disputes and amending Regulation (EC) No 2006/2004 and Directive 2009/22/EC (Directive on consumer ADR), as well as the document of the European Commission (2013), EU: New Legislation on Alternative and Online Dispute Resolution , Memo 13/192, of 12 March 2013. With reference to the international conventions project, the topic is reported, in particular by K. Tonner, Alternative Dispute Resolution , in IFFTA Law Review , 3-2014, p. 22. For further appropriate references to the relevant literature, see A. Corrado, La tutela dei diritti del turista: metodi di risoluzione alternativa delle controversie , in Franceschelli V. – Morandi F., Manuale di diritto del turismo , cit., p. 399 ss. 97 As has been effectively highlighted by C. Lima Marques, the proposal has the following fundamental characteristics: “It is a multilateral convention on global cooperation of authorities and access to justice rather than traditional conflicts of law rules, leaving each country to use its own law. Using the existing institutions, authorities and judicial system (small claims, arbitration courts, judicial courts etc.) on the protection of consumers, defining tourists in a very flexible way as consumers, facilitating cooperation and ex ante interventions without extra costs. Aiming to overcome the eventual discrimination and difficulties of the foreign tourists to access legal assistance or the access to justice in the country of destination, by organizing a system of authorities with information and multilingual prospects, information about foreign law and costumes and connected with the authorities of the country of origin of the tourists, and multilingual formularies to complaint, that can be send to the other authorities, if the case cannot be resolved by the intervention of the authorities in the country of destination”; see International Law Association, Washington Conference 8th April 2014 on the International Protection of Consumers, p. 18 ss. (part. p. 20).