Acts that May Cause Confusion and their Influence on Tourism Fredy Sánchez Merino1 1. Introduction; 2. Confusion-Causing Acts; 2.1. General Aspects: Imitation vs. Confusion; 2.2. Imitation Acts; 2.3. Specifics of Imitation Acts; 2.4. Confusion Acts; 2.5. Enforcement Limitations; 3. (The Need for) Imitation; 4. Implications for the Tourism Sector; 4.1. Double Approach: Consumer – Competitor; 5. Possible Effects on the Tourism Sector; 6. Conclusions; 7. Bibliography. 1. INTRODUCTION Competition is essential to market health, as it allows a nation’s resources to be used in a manner which best affects the production of goods and services (Godfrey, 2008). It is not an end, but a consequence of concurrent firms seeking economic benefits. As a result, resources are more efficiently allocated and innovation thrives. Competition doesn’t come without its side effects on consumers, like lower prices or better quality, which is why there is a thin line between competition and consumer protection law which will be addressed in this chapter. Due to this, any sector with growing economic potential is proportionally subject to growing competition, and tourism is not an exception. The direct travel and tourism sector had a 4.6% GDP growth in 2017, outpacing the global economy for the seventh consecutive year (Guevara, 2018), positioning itself as one of the most important economic sectors and a fiercely competitive one at that. Competition constitutes the base for market economies and the more competition, the better (FTC, 2018), which is why it is so important to regulate competition in the industry to not only avoid unfair practices between companies, but also to protect consumers’ best interests. The types and amount of commercial practices are simply too extensive to be regulated by any single law, which is why most legislations do it negatively. 1 Abogado.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTE4NzM5Nw==