Tourism Law in Europe

2 and people from a migrant background 5 . Today there is no doubt that tourism has impact to the economies of the states, however, also it affects other areas such as socio-cultural, environmental and political. Therefore, each country pays more or less attention to the tourism sector by creating tourism eco-system consisting of tourism policy and legal regulation, institutional capacities, safeguards of the freedom to engage in commercial activity and protection of tourists’ rights. However, at the same time today tourism is the most controversial and sensitive topic for discussions. Being as one of the most important economic sectors, today tourism economy has been heavily hit by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic 6 . That is unprecedent impact to the tourism sector therefore it is not surprised that the measures for the recovery of this sector and the future of tourism eco-system are under discussions at the international, European and national levels. Notoriously, Lithuanian tourism sector has also been affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Restrictions on economic activities introduced in order to stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus have had a particularly negative impact on services sector. Travel agencies and tour organisers have been the worst hit sector (their sales income from services provided for arrived foreigners and departed Lithuanian residents during 2020 second quarter (April-June) in comparison with sales income during 2018 first quarter – 2020 first quarter have decreased 98,96 and 95,32 percent respectively), companies providing accommodation services (hotels, etc.) (their sales income decreased 70,3 percent), airlines (sales income decreased 67,32 percent) 7 . The aim of this paper is to present Lithuanian tourism eco-system. The systemic view of the tourism law is explored through three dimensions approach. The first part of paper will be dedicated to the first dimension - legal basis (legal regulation and policy formation basis), then, in the second part, the second dimension- institutional framework- will be analyzed 5 UNWO. European Union Tourism Trends, p. 7; available in https://www.e- unwto.org/doi/pdf/10.18111/9789284419470. 6 OECD. Tourism Policy Responses to the coronavirus (COVID-19). Updated 2 June 2020; available in https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/view/?ref=124_124984-7uf8nm95se&title=Covid- 19_Tourism_Policy_Responses. 7 Evaluation of decisions taken during the COVID-19 pandemic from legal, managerial and economic perspective. Research report, 2020, Mykolas Romeris university.