Sustainable Tourism Law

A NEW DRAFT REGULATION OF PACKAGE TRAVELS IN SPAIN 547 contracts are offered. Nowadays, the traveller himself is allowed to configure his travel package or to decide the acquisition of individual services. Under the new Directive, the concept of travel package has been redefined 16 and the legal protection offered by this norm has spread to other services. For instance, the very concept of travel package now includes some elements that had not been explicitly considered before. This way, the Directive has introduced within the definition of travel services the rental of cars, motorcycles or other motor vehicles 17 . The Directive considers touristic packages that are prearranged by the traveller. In these cases, the traveller plays an active role in the organization of his own travel, both contracting with one or more companies and, engaging each service independently. Package travel services are also covered by the Directive. These are the result of the combination and contracting of different services by the traveller himself, using to that end one or more websites. Under this kind of contracting, the touristic company facilitates the conclusion of the arrangements with different providers. We are looking at a travel package – and not linked services – when we consider a combination of travel services where the traveller’s name, payment details and e-mail address are transmitted between the traders and the contract is concluded at the latest 24 hours after the booking of the first travel service is confirmed. Travel packages and linked travel services deserve a different regulation 18 . The Directive grants the harmonization of its content with the rest of the applicable rules and the International Conventions regarding air, rail and sea transport. Its alignment with the Montreal Convention, the Convention concerning International Carriage by Rail (COTIF), just like the Athens Convention, allows the organizer to limit its liability for the failure in the transport service included in the framework of a package travel, to the same extent of the limited responsibility of the carriers under these international conventions. In the cases of failure in the provision of the transportation services, the trav- eller may file his complaints both under the rules of the Directive or one of the 16 The notion of redefinition has been used by GONZÁLEZ FERNÁNDEZ, M.ª B., “Redefiniciones y armonización en materia de viajes combinados”, Revista de Derecho Mercantil , no. 297, 2015. 17 TORRES, C., “A new paradigm in the protection of travellers in the digital age”, The New Package Travel Directive , ESHTE/INATEL, Lisbon, 2017. 18 This difference is accurately considered by GONZÁLEZ CABRERA, I., “Una nueva configuración legal del viaje turístico. Del viaje combinado al paquete dinámico”, Revista Doctrinal Aranzadi Civil-Mercantil , no. 7, 2017. Also see, PANIZA FULLANA, A., Viajes combinados y servicios de viaje vinculados: replanteamiento de conceptos y sus consecuencias sobre la responsabilidad , Dykinson, Madrid, 2017.