Sustainable Tourism Law

720 SUSTAINABLE TOURISM LAW visit 71 (this should, by virtue of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance (Chapter 201), also apply to outbound tour escorts). Attention should also be drawn to two code of business practices, titled Code of Business Practice on Inbound Travel Service , Code of Business Practice on Outbound Package Tours and Code of Business Practice on Study Tours , which govern travel agents to similar effects but provide more comprehensive requirements on each aspect of arranging the relevant tours in question. The Compliance Committee within the TIC has the contractual power under its Articles of Association to impose penalties on any infringement by a travel agent, tour escort and tour guide. Specifically, regarding the violation of the TIC rules by a travel agent, the TIC has power to terminate or suspend its membership, impose fines at a fixed scale, issue reprimands or warnings, or impose demerits 72 . I.4. The tourist’s right to legal remedies and contract termination Mainland China Whilst the CTL is the governing and most relevant law in relation to travel disputes, one should pay heed to the general rules of contract law, as provided in the Contract Law of the People’s Republic of China 73 , which are also applicable to travel contracts and remedies claims, but are outside the scope of this chapter. After the CTL came into force, in 2010 the Supreme People’s Court also issued a legally binding interpretation on tourism disputes, titled Provisions of the Supreme People’s Court on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in Tour Disputes (“Provisions”) 74 . This is also relevant as to the meaning of specific provisions of the CTL, insofar as they are consistent. If the travel agency violates any of the aforesaid restrictions on charging unreasonably low prices, receiving kickbacks, arranging shopping places or separately charged tourism activities, the tourist is entitled to return the goods 71 Part 3 paragraph 12 and appendix of Code of Conduct for Tourist Guides. 72 See further, Guidelines on the handling of cases involving members suspected of violating TIC rules by the Compliance Committee , January 2015, retrievable at http://www.tichk.org/public/website/en/council/committees/ compliance_members.pdf/. 73 中華人民共和國合同法 (Chinese) Order Nr. 15 [1999] of the President of the PRC. 74 最高人民法院關於審理旅遊糾紛案件適用法律若干問題的規定 (Chinese), Interpretation Nr. 13 [2010] of the Supreme People’s Court, October 26, 2010.