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LEGISLATION AND ETHICS IN TRAVEL AND TOURISM SECTOR

Introduction

This is important to maintain a proper legislation for travel as well as tourism sector which could guide the sector in a definite manner. However there are different kinds of laws as well as regulations which the authorities should be considered in order to grow the tourism market without any kind of constraints under different circumstances. Though according to most of the researchers this is not an easy task to get some idea regarding law as well as tourism at the same time and this is also quite complicated. There could be different legislations which is actually consisted within the concept of tourism as well, such as, ATOL, IATA, ABTA as well as CAA in this situation.

Discussion

LO1 

Thus for a market researchers this is important to possess some information about these different legislations under this context. These numerous regulations could be, such as,

  • IATA

IATA defines the “International Air Transport Association” which itself is a trade association for the overall airlines throughout the world. This governing body has currently 290 airlines which actually represents 117 countries in this situation (Zheng et al. 2018). Headquarter for this governing body is in Montreal, Canada whereas the executive office in Switzerland, Geneva. This trade association therefore has been started its operations in the year of 1945 in Havana. 

According to IATA there should be a fixed structure for fare in order to avoid any kind of price competition. However this has been found out that there could be some positive implication as well as negative implication of this governing body. The different positive implications could be,

  • IATA always tried to maintain the safety for both their member airlines as well as passengers as their first preferences
  • The overall airline business has been simplified through different practices by the IATA. In accordance with this they have introduced “Simplifying the business” which has been started on the year of 2012. Through this practice E-Ticket as well as boarding pass with bar code has been introduced to the passengers
  • IATA always tried to sustain its environment by use the fuel in an efficient manner as well as through carbon emission
  • On the other side consulting as well as training services have been provided by IATA under different circumstances

Again there are some negative implications of IATA also which has been faced by them for quite a long time (Bendell and Font, 2016). These native implications could be, such as,

  • According to IATA, the global industry for air transport has been downgraded in the year of 2019 due to lack of demand
  • The net profit post tax has been declined a per IATA in the year of 2018 which was estimated by them around 30 (Billion) (USD)

ATOL

ATOL defines different practices by “Air Travel Organizers’ Licensing” which is actually a scheme by CAA in order to protect the passengers financially that have actually purchase any package holidays or operated through a tour operator. However most of the key tour operators within the UK are governed by ATOL and they are also bounded to hold the ATOL license in order to legally sell their air travel.

However there could be some positive implications as well as negative implications through which ATOL has been operated under different circumstances (Bitner and Booms, 2018). These different implications in this situation could be, such as,

  • It provides license to operate in a legal manner to the air travel firms that is based on the UK
  • Through this legislation tourists could get the protection financially regarding their air travel as well as if they travel through any tour operators
  • They have enforced in the year of 1973 with a proper viewpoint towards the travel as well as tour operators and packages
  • On the other side if any tour operator couldn’t get any license from ATOL then they can’t work in a legal way thus this could create a negative impact within the industry
  • ATOL doesn’t always provide the safe environment to the tourists regarding their tour packages
  • CAA

CAA as well as Civil Aviation Authority could be considered as the statutory corporation based on which different aspects could be regulated across the overall civil aviation within the UK (Buckley, 2017). There could be different responsibilities that have been approved by the CAA which is considered as the positivity of the body. These responsibilities could be such as,

  • CAA could be responsible for the issuing the license of the pilots as well as equipment testing
  • Based on the viewpoints of CAA security standards could be regulated across the aviation industry
  • Practice the scheme for national protection for the passengers as well as customers 

Though CAA provides several opportunities to their members as well as passengers, sometimes failure in the telecommunication industry as well as training establishment could create a negative situation for this governing body.

ABTA

They have considered as the travel association body for British travel agencies through which it would be possible to deal with the tour operators as well as travel agents. This governing body tried to maintain very high standard as well as regulate all the tour operators through the UK.

  • Roles and Regulatory powers

There are some regulatory powers through which arbitration services like any kind of consumer disputes could be submitted (Cîrstea, 2018). Also some code of ethics as well as conducts could also be practiced under different circumstances. These could be,

    • The act of consumer protection could protect as well as save their consumers from any kind of unfair trading regulation
    • Through the legislation of health and safety, the risk regarding consumer’s health could be easily decreased
  • “Legislation act, [2003]”
  • “The act of data protection, [1998]”
  • “The act of Sexual Offence”
  • Structures

There could be different kind of courts through which travel sectors could operate as well as apply if there is any kind of dispute. These different courts could be,

  • “The Magistrate court as well as Court of Appeal” could deal with the mostly any kind of criminal offence or civil case
  • “Country court” could deal with the land related cases
  • “High court, Supreme Court as well as constitutional court” could deal with the criminal as well as consumer dispute and this cases could consisted of barristers as well as solicitors
  • “Crown court” could deal with the suits of the criminal cases
  • Solicitors could provide several legal advice as well as support to the clients against the tour operators as well as tour agents (Hall, 2019)
  • Barristers could easily represents the organization as well as customers within the court
  • 1974, The Road Act

This act could describe as the regulations as well as law which is related to any kind of liabilities as well as rights of the passengers regarding their carriage as well as luggage by the road under some definite contract. However there is some acts which has been established in this context. These could be,

  • “1979, Air and Road Act (Carriage)”
  • “1974, Athens Convention (International Carriage)”
  • “1979, Air and Road Act (International Carriage)”

Some Protocols as well as conventions regarding Air Transport could be, such as,

  • “Warsaw, 1929”
  • “Hague, 1955”
  • “Montreal, 1975”
  • “Denied Boarding Compensation Schemes European Union (1997)”

LO2 

Introduction

Different legislations as well as regulations could help the travel agencies as well as tour operators through which travel business could operate without any kind of constraints (Hasan and Abdullah, 2018). These regulations therefore could help the tourism industry to operate in a way which is properly supported by the law under different circumstances. Not only regulations as well as legislations are important for tour operators or tourism industry but also it is helpful for customers as well as tourists regarding their carriage, health as well as safety under different circumstances. This overall situation therefore could be able to depict some rules as well as regulations which could support this overall report with a proper justification.

Discussion

Health and Safety Act, 1974 (Work)

This act is an important one for the people who are continuously working on different work. However a proper example could be given in this situation where if a sport person is playing tennis or football, then this is important to maintain his or her safety and it comes under this act (Heung et al. 2019). Thus the different implications could be,

  • Based on this act people could easily maintain the safety, health as well as welfare of the employees as well as administrators at the workplace
  • This act therefore easily protect the employees who take risks at their place of work and secure their health conditions
  • Through this act atmosphere emission could easily be controlled under different circumstances
  • However sometimes this act can’t also protect the employees at their workplace hence could create a negative impact

Act of Occupiers Liability, 1984

According to this law a duty could be imposed who could trespass or visit the premises without any kind of permission. This situation therefore sometimes could be considered as the criminal offense at the workplace. Thus this law could help the people to protect their any assets as well as land by prevent the visiting their place without any kind of permission. 

Data protection act 1998

It is very much essential for the researcher to make plans for protecting its data from any unknown party. This type of data is mainly designed for protecting personal data that is stored on the computers. According to this act the top management of organization can focus on making proper and improved plans for protecting and saving the data within limited period of time. This act is mainly used for attaining the goals and objectives within limited period of time.  

Duty of care

This law has been considered the law under Trot law where legal obligation could be imposed on the individual as well as people with whom there will be no familiar relationship with other party (Hojeghan and Esfangareh, 2018). Thus in this act of duty of care there will be two parties and between those two parties there wouldn’t be any kind of familiar as well as direct interrelationship. 

Vicarious liability

This act has also comes under the trot act. It defines the liabilities that have been taken by the superior for the act of their subordinate as well as any other third party. The employer and employee of any kind of organization could be a great example for this act.

Act of sex discrimination, 1975

This is important for the people as well as any kind of community to practice this act in order to refine the society. Modern society sometimes discriminate among the male as well as female and the female persons whether they are home maker or employees is underprivileged most of the time. Thus this law could help them to secure their position within the society (Jackson and Barber, 2015). On the other side, sometimes there are some political leaders who could misuse this law. According to this act it is very much essential for the top management of any organization to provide equal job opportunities to male and females. This means there should not be any discrimination done with the female employees rather focus can be laid on offering equal benefits to them. If the organization is successful in doing this than it can lay positive impact on this functioning. This is because its workforce will be more satisfied and chances of conflicts will be easily reduced. 

Act of Race Discrimination, 1976

This act has been practiced since 1976 under UK Parliament in order to control the discrimination regarding racism throughout the society under different circumstances. There should not be any discrimination done with the employees on the basis of their race or creed. Focus can be laid on providing them equal opportunities, so that work can be easily completed in an organization. 

Consolidation act of Employment protection, 1978

This act tried to protect several responsibilities as well as rights of the employees within their organization. Employee insolvency, several employee benefits could come under this act. There are different kinds of rights and values that can be taken into consideration for providing better satisfaction to the employees within limited period of time. 

Act of Disability discrimination, 1995

Based on this act any kind of discrimination of any disable person could be prevented. If a disable person wants to rent a property then tenant should make that property with disability adapted. As per this act there should not be any discrimination done with the disable person working in an organization. The top management can focus on providing safe and secure environment to these type of people so that they do not face any kind of difficulty while working in an organization. 

Employment Act, 2002

Any kind of dispute at the workplace, equality among the employment, equal treatment of every employees as well as family-friendly workplace could be practiced under this act and every organization has been bounded by this law. According to this type of act it becomes the duty of management to provide equal chances of growth opportunities to its each and every employee. This act will also enable the management in forming proper and positive relationship with its workforce. 

Act of Human Rights, 1998

Through this act human rights throughout the UK as well as European countries could be practiced under different situations. According to this act different innovative plans and strategies are made for the overall development of the individuals. In this type of act major focus is laid on treating each and every individual as equal and providing them equal opportunities for their growth. It helps in providing justice to individuals in case of any mis-happening. The functioning of TTM will be directly affected by this act if proper plans and guidelines are not made for the overall development. This means if the top management of TTM is successful in making proper and innovative plans according to human right act than better satisfaction can be provided to the individuals and chances of their overall development will also be directly increased. 

Conclusion

Thus this has been found out that practicing these several laws could help the overall workplace as well as societies to operate in an efficient manner (Masson-Zwaan and Freeland, 2017). This different laws as well as regulations could support not only the employee’s work but also their welfare as well. It is very much essential for the top management of any organization to make future plans according to these acts. By doing this better and proper support to the employees can be given and chances of dis-satisfaction can be reduced. By following the laws and regulations imposed by the government of a particular country the organization will be able to improve its current and future condition within limited period of time. 

LO3

  • Contract Law

A certain and specific contract might be illustrated as significant relationship that is abided by law and legal authority in between two or more certainly defined parties in context of goods or services with exchange of existing consideration, which is highly enforced through law. Therefore, in this regard, it can be said that each and every travel organizations have specific contract binding with customers with the set out detailing of services as well as payments and any monetary transactions (Ryabinkin, 2018). Thus, in below certain standard and essential components in relevancy with the contract of travel and tourism of UK is defined. These are as follows:

  • Offer: This is certain statement used for informing that defined offer is ready or prepared in order to be accepted and granted by offeree. Therefore, it can be easily understand that statement of offer is prepared by offeror for the offeree. It should include the existence of two specific parties along with certainly defined condition for accepting or granting the offer that is presented. For example; staying in a hotel, it must be clearly defined in offer statement and offeror and offeree should be presented as offeror should present the offer of staying in a hotel, which needs to be accepted by the offeree and after that, the overall process of offer would be successfully executed. 
  • Acceptance: When the offeree is prepared for accepting the offer that has been made, then it is called as acceptance. For example; within a certain holiday contract, acceptance amounts certain value for purchasing the product or availing the service offer following a broader discussion with travel agent. 
  • Consideration: The term consideration indicate towards a certain contract, which is required to be valid by having specific consideration amount in order to successfully execute the acceptance process. Without having specific consideration, each and every contract must be any unspecified agreement without abided by law. For example; in a contract for holiday, charges of the holiday by the agent should be mentioned against the offer presented by him, as it would be specified as consideration. 
    • Certainty: The term certainty refers to specific rules as well as terms and condition of the contract, which should be clearly defined and have commonality for both parties otherwise it should not be considered as valid. For example; miscommunication for staying preferences in a hotel between two parties would not provide commonality of terms and conditions by eliminating the certainty of contract of holiday. 
  • Capacity: Capacity refers towards certain ability of entering within a contract that has legal validity. More specifically, legislations demonstrate the term capacity as for possessing age majority as well as soundness of mind (Whittaker, 2018). For example; in a contract for holiday, mentioning and clearly defining the requirement that the consumer is minimum 18 years old, is considered as the major capacity. 

On the other hand, “Contracts of Supply of Goods” refers that consumer can anticipate rational “state of goods or services” facilitated with regard to care as well as skills. Thus, when certain contract is formed for certain accommodation, then for example; hotel room needs to be in decent form or condition with compliance with abiding by “standards of health and safety laws”. Therefore, it can be said that a certain contract for holiday would have following conditions:

Figure 1: Conditions for a Holiday Contract 

Moreover, the terms and conditions between two parties should hold the commonality by having following terms;

Figure 2: Elements of Common Terms and Conditions 

Thus, it can be said that “Law of Contract in context of UK Travel and Tourism Sector” has formed the safer travelling opportunities for tourists. 

  • Trade Description Act, 1968

Legislations of consumer protection aim at protection of interests and rights of consumers against violations of business organisations as well as manipulation of travel agents (Wong et al. 2019). On the hand, “The Trade Description Act, 1968” restricts misleading or false indication towards goods and services prices along with accommodation and other services related to it. Thus, as a whole, it certainly sets out responsibility or liability of “Trading Standards Officers” for checking the following aspects;

Figure 3: Factors to Be Checked by Trading Standards Officers

Moreover, in this context, it can be said that if within holiday travel if services are not included or given by operator of the tour then consumers has the following rights to incorporate and initiate;

  • Policy of packaged tour might be used in helping consumers in having charges against travel agents. 
  • If consumers are not contented in accordance with holiday package tour then, they have the right to consider travel law for getting their lawful rights regarding specific matter (Yun, 2019)
  • As per rule 4, no tour operators are eligible to give deceptive information to their consumers. 
  • Consumer Protection Act, 1987

“Consumer protection Act, 1987” helps in protecting the rights as well as interests of consumers. The producers are abided by the legal obligation duty and responsibilities towards consumers. 

This act further protects consumers’ rights in following terms;

  • Any malpractice 
  • Unsafe goods or services
  • Developing legal authorities

However, significantly, this law has been replaced by “Unfair Trading Regulations, 2008” (CPR)

  • The Package Travel, Package Holidays and Package Tours Regulations 1992

“Package Travel Regulations, 1992” ensures miscommunication should be rectified at end of service provider on the basis of formulating essential arrangements. More specifically, it explicitly facilities with minimal requirements of contract that needs to be turned into certain well defined and constructed holiday contract. Thus, in order to make it validation, this should involve facilities more than two or above in terms of; transportation, accommodation or any other specific tourist services. (amazonaws.com, 2020)

LO4

Business Ethics, Importance, Responsibility and Employment Ethics in Finance and investment 

Business ethics is focused on specific constitutes that are required for judging right and wrongful behaviour and approaches in the world of business in everyday transactions. Moreover, it can also be seen that both finance and investment is the two main aspect of business that requires higher constitution of ethical obligations. In finance and investment ethics incorporated as legal norms that further encompasses truthfulness, integrity as well as rationality and fairness in each and every transaction related to monetary valuation. It is very much essential for the management of International Air transport authority to make proper plans and strategies for managing its CSR polices. by doing this organization will be able to sustain in the market for longer period of time and best use of available resources will also be done. 

Importance  

Importance of business ethics in finance and investment can be interpreted as higher standards of ethics of business within the scope of finance and investment sector is mostly crucial for maintaining public and stakeholders’ trusts in context of financial markets as well as in profession of investment. Moreover, business ethics in the scope of investment aspect helps in prohibiting public’s interest from the misleading concept of speculation. Thus, it not only provides fairness in terms of monetary business transactions but also enhance the robustness of global capital market as well as engagement of people by ensuring the efficiency of autonomy. 

Responsibility 

Responsibility of business ethics in scope of finance and investment can be seen through its significant and intense role in the business world. Therefore, the major responsibility of business ethics in finance and investment is to maintaining the objectivity and independency along with the autonomy of financial and investing activities (Buckley, 2017). Moreover, by protecting the values of accounting professions as well as incorporation of accounting and financial standards, guidelines, it also plays pivotal role. Apart from that in context of financial services, ethics have major responsibility towards auditors, management advisory and internal control management system.  The organization aims at using its financial resources for forming proper and adequate CSR polices for the future course of action. For example authority aims at using its financial resources for keeping its environment clean. 

Employment Ethics 

Employment ethics refers to certain set of principles for forming rules of conduct by targeting specific group of people working within the sector. Thus, in case of finance and investment activities and services sector, employment ethics would evolves through the internal people related and included in it such as; executives of management department as well as employees at each level of hierarchy. In this context, one thing that required to be mentioned is that employment of auditors play pivotal role as they have equivalent responsibilities towards maintaining ethical norms just like the personnel included in management level. Different innovative plans and strategies are made by the organization for offering equal work opportunities to its employees. 

Advertising Ethics and Green Issues in Business

Advertising Ethics 

Ethics of advertising indicates towards certain well defined principles that regulate ways of communicating that takes place in between the buyer and seller. Moreover, in accordance with this, it can be said that ethics is significant in advertising sector as through the act of ethics within advertising process, business organisations are becoming responsible for needs of consumers. Moreover, it also helps in protecting the morality and rights of customers. (mallenbaker.net, 2020). Ethical and proper advertising strategies are implemented by the organization for attaining the goals and objectives in proper manner. 

 Green Issues

The term green issues refer to environmental issues or problems such as; global warming, air pollution, acid rain, waste disposal, water pollution and climate change (Hall, 2019). Each of the issues has intense negative impact on animal as well as human and entire nation of the planet Earth. However, in present days, the rapid enhancement of modernisation and globalisation in business world has resulted in the increasing level of these issues by resulting in drastic change in environmental growth turning it into having green issues, where the level of greenery on the planet Earth is rapidly decreasing with the increase industrialisation. The organization aims at reducing the chances of environmental issues for the future course of action. This is mainly done by using latest technology that causes less pollution in the environment. 

Ethical Consumerism, Environmental and Social Auditing, Code of Practice and Corporate Social Responsibility 

Ethical Consumerism 

Ethical consumerism refers to specific terms that define certain form related to activism of politics on the basis of premises, which buyers within the market consumes goods along with the process of producing them implicitly (Bendell and Font, 2016). Thus, from the viewpoint of ethical consumerism, consumptions highly indicate towards specific political approach or act, which has the ability of sanctioning values personified within manufacture of product. 

 Environmental and Social Auditing

Environmental audit means a certain type of audit that specifically evaluates to intend for identifying compliance with environmental aspects as well as gaps in implementation of management system. On the other hand, social audit refers to certain way of measuring as well as reporting and ultimate improvement of business organisation’s social as well as ethical performance. 

Code of Practice 

Code of practice is certain rules that are set as written that defines the way people needs to behave in their particular working profession. Thus, development of code of practice includes ethical norms and principles by considering workplace behaviour as well as fairness, rationality and integrity. In a nutshell, developing code of practice helps in building unprejudiced working environment. 

Corporate Social Responsibility 

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is one of the most popular term that is commonly used as type self regulation within the scope of global private business sector. It commonly aims at contributing towards social targets and goals with integration of ethical practices within the organisation. More specifically, CSR practices help the business organisations and involving management to be accountable towards the overall society along with itself as well as stakeholders and public. (mallenbaker.net, 2020)

Conclusion

Moreover, it can also be found that each and every travel contract holds specific terms and conditions attached along with it that is in terms of destination place, timings of departure and arrival as well as staying cost and duration of travelling along with the details of accommodation if required. However, on the other hand, it can be said that on the failure of communicating the defined terms and conditions, consumers have the right to withdrawing from the contract at any time and any cost.

Reference list

Books

Zheng, Y., Lai, K.K. and Wang, S., 2018. Forecasting Air Travel Demand: Looking at China. UK: Routledge.

Journals

Bendell, J. and Font, X., 2016. Which tourism rules?: Green standards and GATS. Annals of Tourism Research31(1), pp.139-156.

Bitner, M.J. and Booms, B.H., 2018. Trends in travel and tourism marketing: The changing structure of distribution channels. Journal of travel research20(4), pp.39-44.

Buckley, R., 2017. A framework for ecotourism. Annals of tourism research21(3), pp.661-665.

Cîrstea, Ş.D., 2018. Travel &Tourism Competitiveness: A Study of World’s Top Economic Competitive Countries. Procedia Economics and Finance15, pp.1273-1280.

Hall, C.M., 2019. Tourism in Antarctica: activities, impacts, and management. Journal of travel Research30(4), pp.2-9.

Hasan, A.A. and Abdullah, N.C., 2018. Tourism Industry Compensation Fund (TICF) in Malaysia: Some Legal and Policy Considerations. 2014). Theory and Practice in Hospitality and Tourism Research, CRC Press (Taylor & Francis Group), pp.217-223.

Heung, V.C., Kucukusta, D. and Song, H., 2019. Medical tourism development in Hong Kong: An assessment of the barriers. Tourism Management32(5), pp.995-1005.

Hojeghan, S.B. and Esfangareh, A.N., 2018. Digital economy and tourism impacts, influences and challenges. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences19, pp.308-316.

Jackson, L.A. and Barber, D.S., 2015. Ethical and sustainable healthcare tourism development: A primer. Tourism and Hospitality Research15(1), pp.19-26.

Masson-Zwaan, T. and Freeland, S., 2017. Between heaven and earth: The legal challenges of human space travel. Acta Astronautica66(11-12), pp.1597-1607.

Ryabinkin, C.T., 2018. Let there be flight: it’s time to reform the regulation of commercial space travel. J. Air L. & Com.69, p.101.

Whittaker, A., 2018. Challenges of medical travel to global regulation: A case study of reproductive travel in Asia. Global Social Policy10(3), pp.396-415.

Wong, E.P., Mistilis, N. and Dwyer, L., 2019. Understanding ASEAN tourism collaboration—the preconditions and policy framework formulation. International Journal of Tourism Research12(3), pp.291-302.

Yun, Z., 2019. A legal regime for space tourism: Creating legal certainty in outer space. J. Air L. & Com.74, p.959.

Online articles

amazonaws.com, (2020), rules and regulations, Available at: https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/978715/Coles___Hall_TF_Template_Word_Mac_2008_TEC_copy.pdf?response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DRights_and_Regulation_of_Travel_and_Tour.pdf&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A%2F20200104%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20200104T115631Z&X-Amz-Expires=3600&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Signature=ab488b92841b48d385500e37c913dcf9798366e7927bcd91c78f203efc93f144 [Accessed on 23.12.2019]

Websites

mallenbaker.net, (2020), CSR, Available at: http://mallenbaker.net/article/clear-reflection/definitions-of-corporate-social-responsibility-what-is-csr [Accessed on 23.12.2019]