Sustainable Tourism Law

546 SUSTAINABLE TOURISM LAW The purchasing patterns of the consumers of tourism services have largely changed throughout the twenty-five years in which the 1990 Directive has been into force. With regards to travel packages, these patterns have changed to a larger extent, as nowadays the Internet represent the main purchase channel for these services. This situation has made necessary some specific provisions for the protection of the consumers of these products. These new rules are supposed to take into account the specificities of the contracting means 15 . The current Directive considers all these factors and aims to adapt the protection of tourists to the evolution that the market has undergone, enhancing contract transparency in the contracting and providing legal certainty both for travellers and tourism entrepreneurs. The legislative fragmentation and the differences among national regulations prevented the development of an integrated internal market for these services. Some further alignment between the rights and duties resulting from the contracts of travel packages and linked travel arrangements was needed. Undoubtedly, this harmonization fosters the creation of a real internal market for consumers and it establishes an appropriate balance between the protection granted to consumers and business’ competitiveness. The European legislators haves preferred to use the notion of traveller instead of consumer, a concept that had hitherto been used when considering the person protected by the package travel provisions. The change of the term consumer for traveller implies the extension of the protected individuals. The notion of ‘traveller’ also covers people travelling on business trips. Most of the individuals contracting travel package services or linked travel arrangements are covered under the notion of consumer, as stipulated by the EuropeanUnion Law. Nevertheless, inmany cases it is difficult to distinguish among them those who are professionals or small entrepreneurs, who use the same means as consumers for the contracting of these services. Considering that these individuals deserve the same legal protection, the Directive has included them within its scope of application. Services 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 business or professional reasons, are not covered by the Directive. The transformation of the habits and patterns of the consumers of touristic products has been of huge relevance. It has even affected the way in which travel 15 MÁRQUEZ LOBILLO, P., “El consumidor en la contratación electrónica de servicios turísticos”, Revista de Derecho Mercantil , no. 282, 2011.