The Legal Impacts of COVID-19 in the Travel, Tourism and Hospitality Industry

348 LEGAL IMPACTS OF COVID-19 IN THE TOURISM INDUSTRY the twelve months, which will be counted from the end of the state of public calamity in Brazil (31 December 2020). Moreover, concerning rescheduling, the rule emphasises that seasonality and values originally contracted must be respected for the new dates, that is, the new choice of the consumer must consider the amount that he has in value, as a right, as well as, the season for the new date, therefore, being subject to differences and adjustments, according to new choices. It should also include the same twelvemonth deadline for new dates for services (31 December 2020). Finally, if the consumer does not get an option to reschedule, adjust credit or even an agreement with the suppliers, the latter will then proceed to refund the amounts to the consumer, monetarily restated, and within the same period of twelve months, counted from the end of the state of public calamity (31 December 2020). The norms might not be perfect, currently generating political variables and conduct by suppliers, as well as immediate demands for refunds from consumers, but the release of immediate reimbursements expressed in the MP No. 948 is a situation that works for the moment, safeguarding the tourism service providers, among them the travel agencies. If they were obliged to immediately make reimbursement of the values of the cancelled trips, as it regularly happens on the occasion of the joint and several liabilities existing in the Brazilian consumer protection legislation, to which they are subject, they would be fatally bound to its closure. 6. CONCLUSION The measures already adopted and in force really represent measures of the Brazilian Government for the attempt to give oxygen to the country’s tourism, therefore, also to the Brazilian travel agencies. It is evident that the Government will still face countless challenges, in several areas, namely tourism. However, every tourism service provider, among them the travel agencies, are currently doing everything to reinvent their activity, connecting more and more to new tools and new technologies and taking advantage of this moment to train all its professionals. So, above all, they need their Government very much, so that their businesses will continue standing until this has passed.

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