Key recommendations for the ongoing tripartite negotiations on the revision of the European Package Travel Directive (PTD) were drawn up by HOTREC, in collaboration with its partners in the European Tourism Industry Coalition, in a joint letter of the bodies to the EU institutions.
The Alliance, which represents businesses from across the spectrum of tourism in Europe, calls for a balanced, functional and fully harmonised regulatory framework that will protect travellers, without undermining the competitiveness and resilience of the sector.
In its letter, the Alliance highlights seven key priorities:
Abolition of the proposed definition of a travel package based on 24 hours, which, according to the operators, causes legal and operational ambiguity.
Removal of strict restrictions on prepayments, in order to ensure the uniform functioning of the market.
Avoidance of overlapping complaint management mechanisms, which copy existing regulations from European consumer protection legislation.
Rejection of additional sanctioning regimes, aiming at proportionate enforcement of rules.
Opposition to unnecessary ADR/ODR obligations given that there are already relevant provisions in European legislation.
Clarification of the “force majeure” criterion for the traveler, in order to avoid liability for personal situations.
Support for a risk-based insolvency protection system that does not impose excessive costs on businesses.
Representatives of the tourism industry underline that the final form of the Directive should be based on three fundamental principles: legal clarity, proportionality and harmonisation. Only in this way, they point out, will Europe be able to maintain a tourism sector capable of meeting modern challenges and supporting millions of jobs and businesses.
