Tourism Law in Europe

20 service providers. Due to the different tourist protection mechanisms in the EEA countries, consumers may face difficulties when defending their interests, such as translating documents into the national language, communicating with foreign authorities or incurring other non-reimbursable administrative costs, as the refund is made in accordance with the law of that country. For example, in 2016 more than one and a half hundred travellers encountered problems after their trips to Madeira and Azores islands were not performed. Travel packages were purchased from the travel agency “Pegasus Tour”, established in Lithuania, which represented “Qualispresenca Lda”, a tour organiser registered in Portugal. Authority supervising tourism service providers (the Department of Tourism at that time) included the Portuguese company into the official list of tour organisers operating in Lithuania and recognised the guarantees of the Portuguese State Tourism Guarantee Fund for securing “Qualispresenca LDA” obligations. However, after the cancellation of travel packages, the claims of the most tourists were rejected by the Portuguese Arbitration Commission as Lithuanian Department of Tourism did not provide them with the proper information concerning dispute procedures provided in Portugal, what forms and formalities must be submitted in order to prove the damage suffered, etc. Also recently hundreds of tourists suffered damage after they concluded package travel contracts with the travel agency “Orange Style” operating in Lithuania and representing the tour organiser “World Visitor AS“, which was registered in Norway. As national law does not explicitly provide the rule under which both the organiser and the travel retailer (travel agency) should be jointly liable vis-à-vis the consumer for the performance of the package (joint liability), after the organiser did not fulfil its obligations, tourists face difficulties in order to get their money, paid for the trips, back. Finally, it should be noted that the Law on Tourism also includes provisions on other tourist services - tourists’ information and accommodation services. In case of guide services national law establishes obligation to have a guide certificate. Whereas in case of providing classified accommodation services (hotel services, motel services, guest house services, camping services) accommodation services classification certificate has to be issued. When

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