Describe about the LEGAL & Ethics in travel & Tourism.
Tourism is a growing sector in the whole world, especially in developed countries like UK. Resources of UK are very abundant and tourists have several choices when they travel in UK which means different persons can opt for their own interests. However, Tourism Law lays down a legal and regulatory framework so that the travel organizations, travel agencies etc can be governed. These frameworks are evolved from company law, environment protection, consumer protection etc in order to assure smooth running of all tourist activities in the country (Osterwalder & Pigneur, 2010). It also enhances the quality of those people working for the tourism industry by encouraging CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility).
The legal framework is defined as that system of procedural steps, test and rules often created through precedent in the common law that regulates and governs agreements, decision-making and laws. Regulatory framework is defined as that system of regulations which is usually established in order to regulate a particular activity. It is the existence of necessary infrastructure which supports the direction, control and implementation of an adopted or proposed law, principle or rule (Karanasios & Burgess, 2014). Both legal and regulatory frameworks are different from each other as legal framework is a directive that is proposed by a legislative body while a regulatory framework is a particular requirement within the legal framework. Legal framework is mostly generated internally within the country’s government whereas regulatory framework varies from industry to industry that means it may be generated internally or externally, like the regulatory framework of tourism sector is different in different countries. Legal frameworks are more general and broad in nature whereas the regulatory frameworks are more specific in nature and it contains description on how the legal frameworks are enforced. Legal frameworks may be proposed by the head of the country that is by the government while regulatory frameworks are simply those enforcements by regulators and the head of country or state does not interfere here (Bieger & Beritelli, 2013).
Some examples of legal and regulatory frameworks present in the tourism industry in UK are:
Strategic Rail Authority- It is a non-departmental body organization in UK. The main function of this organization is to provide path for development and provide various strategies for the efficiency of railway industry in UK.
Civil Aviation Authority- This organization makes several rules and regulations for the aviation sector in UK regarding airspace usage and safety.
Health and Safety Commission- It is responsible for providing an adequate and right framework of safety and health in the workplace in UK. It ensures employers and employees are secure and safe while they are working.
International Air Transport Association- It is situated in Montreal and facilitates in establishing standards and policies for the travel and tourism sector.
Association of British Travel Agents- It is the largest travel association in UK and it facilitates in providing assistance to the business of tourism and travel industry on varied aspects. It also provides legal aid as a part of its service.
Air Travel Operators Licensing- It provides safety and protection to consumers who have availed the air transport service by purchasing the tour package and air tickets.
As a matter of fact, it is already known that not only UK but every country aims to provide their citizens an opportunity to avail transportation facilities whether by surface, air or sea. This is not only limited to transportation of passengers but also to accommodate their packages with them.
Surface transport means transport through railways and coaches, Sea transport means transport by ships, vessels or ferry and air transport means transport by airplanes. Tourism is mostly about travel and hence the role of transportation in its activity is relevant. With recent developments in transport, tourism is stimulated and in turn the expansion of travel and tourism industry has also stimulated transport. Transportation links several diverse destinations and ferries the commodities of people between these places. It can be considered that surface, air and sea transport can be described without taking travelling and tourism into consideration but tourism cannot survive in the absence of transportation (Lew, 2008). Transportation in tourism is viewed as part of travel and tourism that is in charge of bringing tourists to destinations and sending them back once the trip gets finished. Hence, transportation has a massive impact in tourism that explains how people travel and that’s why is involved in travel and tourism operations.
Surface Law- This formulates and protects all passengers on board with the carrier’s permission. The remedy to claims under this legislation includes mental or physical disorders and damage on the passengers on the carrier. It works to improve the image of rail industry in UK and attracts more people travel by taking railway (Ritchie et. al, 2011). It also focuses on the integration of passengers and their goods. It supports the rail industry to develop by establishing effect management systems and regulating the working timings of train drivers and railroad workers. Any loss of luggage is administered by the Carriage by railway Act 1972 and The International Carriage of Passenger by Road Act 1979 plays a keen role in governing this surface law, which is transportation through coaches or railways.
Sea Law- It ensures the security and safety of shipping and also regulates any environmental factors associated with the functioning of ships. The passenger’s rights are present in regulation no. 1177/2010 and their transportation together with their packages is guaranteed. The Athens Convention assures to pay for any loss caused by the negligence of the carrier but if the carrier had no intention of such damage or was unaware, then the liability of carrier will be adjudged limited in nature. This rule provides similar safety and protection to that of Hague Protocol 1955, but for travel by sea. Sea craft with at least 12 passengers must also be equipped with lifesaving tools, fire-fighting instruments etc as regulated by the (SOLAS) Safety of Life at Sea. The protocol of 2002 also makes it compulsory for the ferry authorities to insure the passengers travelling by ships for a certain time.
Air Law- The Warsaw Convention 1929 describes the international carriage facility and lays down policies for documents of carriage. Passengers travelling through air transport can claim compensation for any injury or death. It facilitates non-discrimination and provides assistance to even the disabled. It also requires that the carriages must perform a luggage check at the beginning of journey (Ritchie et. al, 2011). The Warsaw Convention 1929 was replaced by The Montreal Conference 1999 and it presented a single legal instrument rather than a patchwork before. The Denied Boarding Compensation Schemes 1997 aims for the protection of passengers and also raises the standards for these passengers.
Health and safety is one of the major issues of United Kingdom where a very good care is taken. In most of the developed countries around world heal and safety is considered as the most important part. The Health & Safety Executive is the legal and regulatory body in UK which takes care of such issues in the work place. It was set up in 1970’s along with the health and safety commission, health and safety executive, etc. the main purpose of this body is to create a healthy and safe environment in workplaces around UK. It takes assistance of local authorities to fulfill its duties. The Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) is the non-profit organization which aims at making tourism in UK easy, safe and a great experience.
The major functions of ABTA is to raise standards in the tourism industry by providing guidance on issues such as sustainability, health & safety, provide schemes of financial protection, offer consumers the course for redress in case something goes wrong and also provide a representation to the government to ensure that the tourism industry along with the public get a fair deal.
The health, safety and well being of a consumer are a major part of the holiday experience. Safety and security was ranked as number one in a consumer survey made by ABTA, with 89% of the consumers agreeing to rank it as the most important issue of tourism. For the same reasons there is a separate team which works with the travel industry in order to raise the standards in health and safety for the consumers across the globe (William, 2010).
The UK has taken strict actions and important steps in order to ensure maximum safety and healthy environment, therefore the tourists can travel to their desired destinations without any problem. People tend to be more relaxed when they are on vacation, they are not aware of any troubles around them. Such people are more prone to danger and crimes than those who stay alert. This not only applies to tourists from outside the country but also the tourists from other part of UK, since they find themselves in a new environment (Merchant, 2012). New improved security measures are also being adopted at the airports where all the luggage of the passengers are thoroughly checked so that they cannot bring any dangerous or illegal items inside the country. Introduction of identity check as a part of security measure enable the airport staff to check if the person mentioned in the passport is same as the one standing before them. Most of the tourist destinations are more prone to terror attacks. It may lead to growth of fear in the minds of tourists which will obviously hamper the tourism of a country. So the authorities need to be alert in order to check if any such activities are likely to occur.
Therefore, in order to maintain the figures and quality of tourism industry in UK, we see that there have been taken major steps various authorities. Also, in order to cut down the remaining setbacks it is also on the part of tourists to stay alert and act diligently whenever and wherever required.
People who are working in the tourism industry need to follow the guidance on their responsibilities and duties under equality law. Meeting with the legal requirements not only results in compliance of law but it also helps them to enhance the customer service. This leads and encourages the tourism sector to adopt an approach which promotes equality, prevents discrimination among the customers. The equality legislation in UK prohibits the service providers to discriminate or to harass its customers or potential customers on the grounds of sex, disability, pregnancy, gender reassignment, religious belief, political opinion, race, color, and nationality, ethnic, national origins, sexual orientation, etc. It is also unlawful for an organization to advertise a service which can be seen to be discriminatory or it shows an intention to discriminate (Mauri, 2013). If the service providers in the tourism industry comply with the equality legislation, then they can adapt and develop new services to meet the requirements of their customers can result in happy customers. If they fail to do so, it can result in litigation, penalties, fines, bad publicity, and loss of reputation.
It is not a very challenging task in order to maintain equality. The service providers can comply with their legal duties under equality legislation by following simple provisions. They should educate their staff and make them understand it is unlawful to discriminate against people on any protected ground as mentioned in the legislation. They should also develop equality service policies which are flexible according to the changing needs of their consumers. Consultancy with the local organizations which represent people from protected groups for their feedback on the services. They should educate all the staff and other volunteers regarding all the provisions of the equality legislation. There should be conducted regulate trainings and guidance sessions on equality awareness. The service providers should carry out tests and programmers to check the barriers which are used by the disabled so that they can find or trace any drawbacks or barriers and also take appropriate steps for the same. There should exist strict policies regarding failure of staff or volunteer to abide by the provisions of the equality legislation. Also there should be appraisals for staff and volunteers on the basis of equality awareness (Mauri, 2013). The service providers should analyze if there can be any better easier way to establish awareness among all its working staff and volunteers. There are a lot of publications and issues on equality discrimination issued for the general public, service providers other bodies. Everybody can have easy access to all these publications and stay aware of any inequality activity being carried out around them. The organizations providing tourism facilities should ensure that their senior management is bent towards building a service with equality at its heart. They should educate the staff and make them competent enough to use technology which can assist the handicapped. People carrying out good activities in the tourism industry should be looked upon as examples.
A contract may be defined as a voluntary arrangement between two or more parties which is enforceable by law as a binding legal requirement. A contract arises when the parties to the contract agree that there has been an agreement. All the travel companies have a binding contract with the customers who set out the details of payment and services to be provide to them. Like any other contract, the travel contract also consists of certain term and conditions like destination, time of arrival and departure, number of days of stay, cost of stay, etc. In case the service provider fails to communicate any of the conditions then the consumer may withdraw from the contract at his own will. There are certain elements which are related to a contract like offer, acceptance, consideration, capacity and certainty. An offer is made by the offeror to the offeree. Both the parties shall have to fulfill the terms and conditions if the offer is accepted by the offeree (Korstanje & Ivanov, 2012). The agreement of the offeree to accept the offer shall be termed as acceptance. For example, the consumer would agree to buy a package from the agent would amount to acceptance. A contract is valid only if it has a consideration connected to it. Consideration in case of contracts for tourism would amount to payment of monies for purchase of any packages, or payment for staying at a hotel, etc. The parties entering into the contract should have the capacity to contract. For example, a person of age less than18 cannot enter into a contract, any contract entered into with such person shall not be valid. There should be certainty in any contract. If the terms and conditions of any contract are not clear or are contingent in nature then in such cases the contract shall stand to be void. These were the elements of any regular contract.
In case the consumer withdraws from the contract or the service provider cancels the holiday for any reason other than the fault on the part of customer then the contract regulation gives the consumer the implied rights to take a substitute package which is equal to or equivalent to the package originally chosen or to take a lower quality package and claim refund for the remaining amount from agent or purchase price have been refunded to him (Korstanje & Ivanov, 2012).
In case the consumer wants to claim a compensation for the holiday package, then travel claim damages are generally broken down into four major heads. They may include loss of value, out of pocket expenses, loss of enjoyment or personal injury. In case the consumer faces unsatisfactory quality issues then there are no particular set of guidelines which can assess the damages. Presentation of existing complaints in detailed logical formats by appropriate authorities will provide them with a basis of future reference to take decision on similar issues. Therefore we see that the contract legislation in tourism industry is as strict as it is any other sector (Lemelin et. al, 2013). Tourism sector amounts a great deal of national income for the country and should be properly legislated so that there is no loss of revenue as well as image of the country.
The consumer protection in United Kingdom is effected with the help of many legislations, laws, enactments, etc. It aims to ensure that the economy produces fair quality services and goods which consumed by the general public. There have been various steps taken by the parliament which gives the boost to the tourism industry in UK. For example in the late 2015, Europe union gave the approval for tougher protection for travelers buying holiday package holidays. The Europe union voted in favors in the British backed proposals. The said proposal for travel rules extends the existing consumer rights on the package holidays which are booked by travelers through internet on tourism sites, which look like pancakes and are also marketed like packages.
The legislation of consumer protection in UK is stated under “Consumer Protection Act 1987”. This act has four parts: Product Liability, Consumer Safety, Misleading Price Indications and Miscellaneous and Supplemental. The first part, Product Liability indicates the liability of the manufacture or the organization which produces the product and is selling them to others. The law defines producer as the person who manufactures the product. In case where the product is not in physical form or is not manufactured but has been abstracted or won, then manufacturer means the person who won it or abstracts it (Lemelin et. al, 2013). The main responsibility of the production of the product lies with the manufacturer. The second part of the legislation provides about consumer safety. It states how consumer safety is the most important issue and sometimes the priority. The act in the first sentence says that the goods provided by the companied to consumers to be safe. This is clear to understand, that the safety is the prior responsibility of all the manufactures are defined in the act. If the product consists of any element or factor that has a potential factor to harm the consumer then it cannot be sold at all. The standard of the industry in connection with production of the goods are to be strictly followed by manufacturers (Brown, 2011). The third one is the Mis-leading Price Indications; this protects the consumers against mis pricing of products by the manufactures. Price of the products is to be strictly in accordance with government policies. The last part of the act is Miscellaneous which summarizes the all the content mention above and also its connection with other laws (Brown, 2011).
Consumer protection is one of the most important parts of a business and its normal business activities. The travel and tourism sector forms part of the service industry. It is mandatory for the tour operators to sign a contract with their clients before providing any travel services. Therefore, the content of the agreement, that is the term and conditions of the said contract are of very importance. In most of the cases the parts of contract which are unfair and misleading are usually written in fine prints, which are failed to be noticed by the clients, because of the customers end up in losses (Brown, 2011). The consumer protection is very important.
Nowadays travel and tourism sector are much more popular than any other sector. Tourists are coming from far off places to explore the places. But there are many ethical dilemmas faced by the travel and tourism sector. Tourist who comes to see new places does not maintain neatness. They threw the bottles, wrappers etc at the road only which make the places too dirty. Even the tourists who come from far away are fooled by the people living there by charging a very high price for the item or thing. Thus the tourists are fooled by the people living in that place only. Water is also one of the most important issues to be sited or taken care of. Almost 750 liters of water are being wasted for a tourist. The ground where golf is played maximum water is used there and basically they are played by the outsiders. Because of this wastage of water the people living there does not avail water. Many roads, ports etc are being made for comfort of the tourist. Because if the road are popularly developed the tourist will not face any problem in reaching to any place. Due to this all the jungles trees are deforested so that the road are made and even culverts. It is leading to lots of environmental issues. Even the animals are being disturbed and it also leads to extinction of animals. At present people are preferring flights more than a train. According to research plane are more disastrous than a train. It also leads to pollution and also disturbing green house effect. Even there is lots of health issue to people. By seeing the tourist people living their also try to change their lifestyle which hampers the decorum of the society. Even our historical monuments are being destroyed. It leads to pollution and also leads to removal of old items. Even in this tourism sector tourist also sees slum area and thus they get lots of money from tourist because by seeing the poverty they give lots of money to the travels and tourism sectors. The political condition also leads to many environmental issues. The tourist have to adjust with the political issues in the coming days also and they to adjust with the situations (Bendel, 2016).
Intercontinental hotel group (IHG) do various types of business but among them Holiday Inn Resort is one of the brand of it. This type of business is helpful for the travel and tourism sectors. Its main focus is people and environment (Eileen, 2014). It always follows the norms of corporate social responsibility. This hotel group has started an academy for the people so that they teach or provide education to the local people. Thus it improves the employment prospect of the people living in that place. Intercontinental hotel group is one of the biggest hotel companies. This is one of the organisations which make tourism more popular. It concentrates on social, economic and environmental issues and also taking care of the stakeholders (Eileen, 2014).
The IHG take care of the local people and the environment and climatic condition. Their main aim is to do the right thing at the right time and to make the place a better place to live in. The areas where there is water scarcity they built a proper strategy for that area so that water is not wasted. It recently leads to reduction of water up to 4.6 percent and they are trying more and more efforts to reduce more. In many tours and travel sector business local people are always in a disadvantage. The company pays taxes to the local government which are utilised to help the local; people and the environment (Horngren et. al, 2014). They even take care that the travel and tourism sector work properly. The hotels under Intercontinental hotel group takes care that tourism norms and practices are properly understand by both the tourist and the one who is in the tourism sectors. The climates are also affected by the tourist.
IHG try to reduce the disadvantage regarding the climate change by using various norms so that the environments are not affected. They reduce the use of water, protect the wildlife and even do not destroy the trees. Their main aim is that by 2017 they will reduce the carbon emission by 12 percent. Even the IHG is choosing the local people only for showing the monuments and many places and this local people are given proper salary for doing this work. The IHG are in collaboration with International tourism partnership, world travel and tourism council and care. As a member of International tourism partnership brings such programme and policies which lead to remove the environment and social issues (Bendel, 2016). They do their business which true values and belief. They have an online system named IHG Green engage which measures the environmental issues. It also provides steps and ways to reduce the issues as soon as possible. This help to decrease the use of electricity. Even it has reduced up to 9% use of electricity. Even it has also given training to employees so that they use less energy and also using lights consumption properly. They are daily taking some new steps so that carbon effect will be reduced a lot (Fritsch & Sigmund, 2013). They are even guiding all over the hotels so that they can save energy. Thus because of the tourist local people are not affected. It also focuses in the disaster relief where it takes full care of the guest at the time of disaster. They are the member of care also which guide them in this type of issues. So the tourists who are coming from far off places are taken proper care at the time of disaster. They do not wait for money to be given by others to help them (Bendel, 2016). They are ready with money and assistance at the time of such natural disaster.
In South Carolina and Nepal earthquake also IHG helped the people at the time of disaster. They even give knowledge to the younger generation so that after completing studies they can join in the IHG organisations (IHG Case Study, 2014). The IHG are working with the National Geographic Centre so that even deforestation does not take place and the hotel is made at that place which will not destroy the wildlife and the environment. Their main aim is to provide the tourist with the soothing environment by not damaging the environment (Fritsch & Sigmund, 2013).
References
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