Sustainable Tourism Law

LAW ON TOURISM IN CHINA – MAINLAND CHINA AND HONG KONG 709 I. MAJOR LEGISLATIVE AND REGULATORY PROVISIONS ON TOURISM IN MAINLAND CHINA AND HONG KONG At a national level, CTL is at the highest of the legislation hierarchy in all parts of China, passed by the PRC’s parliament, the National People’s Congress (and its Standing Committee). It prevails over any then-existing laws, rules, regulations, directives and opinions at any level, in the event of inconsistency 10 . In the strictest sense, any tourism-related laws enacted in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao are all of provincial/regional level, i.e. domestic legislations. Yet, as already discussed, due to the inapplicability of the laws from one zone to another (mainly, the inapplicability of the CTL to any part outside of mainland China), they respectively form the governing statutes within their own zone. It is thus necessary to also examine them. However, one should also not undermine the impact of CTL on tourism activities taking place inTaiwan, Hong Kong and Macao – there are fundamental changes to domestic travel services to suit the scope of what can legally be offered by travel agencies in mainland China since the CTL. Given its comprehensive nature as a civil code, in this section CTL will nevertheless serve as the bedrock. A cross-border comparison will then be made against the statutes and common law case laws in Hong Kong. Relevant statutory provisions are selected mainly from a tourist (consumer) protection perspective. Readers who are familiar with the English legal systemwill find that the tourism regime in Hong Kong has its origin from the United Kingdom, but without the relevant European Union directives or conventions. Being a common law system, a substantial part of the regulatory regime is derived from case laws that are not tourism or travel-specific. The text on Hong Kong tourism rules will inevitably be a lot shorter than the CTL, where everything is written and codified into statutes. I.1. Personal or property safety Mainland China Article 12 of CTL provides that tourists are entitled to request assistance and protection when their personal or property safety is in danger. Assistance and 10 Paragraph 1 of Circular of the China National Tourism Administration on Implementing Relevant Provisions of the Tourism Law (English title only) 國家旅遊局關於執行《旅遊法》有關規定的通知 (Chinese), Nr. 280 [2013] issued by the China National Tourism Administration, September 2, 2013.