390 TOURISM LAW IN EUROPE economy –, in particular for young people, women and people from a migrant background5. There is no doubt that, nowadays, tourism has an impact on the States’ economies, however, it also affects other areas such as socio-cultural, environmental and political. Therefore, each country pays more or less attention to the tourism sector by creating a tourism eco-system consisting of policies, legal regulation, institutional capacities, safeguards of the freedom to engage in commercial activity and protection of tourists’ rights. Nevertheless, tourism is currently the most controversial and sensitive topic for discussions, as one of the most important economic sectors and having heavily been hit by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic6. This unprecedented impact on the tourism sector has, therefore, led to the implementation measures for the sector’s recovery, with the future of the tourism eco-system being unsurprisingly under discussions at the international, European and national levels. Notoriously, the Lithuanian tourism sector has also been affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Restrictions on economic activities introduced in order to stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus have had a particularly negative impact on the services sector. Consequently, travel agencies and tour organisers have been the worst-hit sector: their sales income from services provided for arrived foreigners and departed Lithuanian residents during 2020’s second quarter (April-June), in comparison with sales income during 2018’s and 2020’s first quarters, decreased 98,96% and 95,32% respectively; companies providing accommodation services (hotels, etc.) saw their sales income decreased by 70,3%; and a 67,32% decrease in the case of airlines7. This paper aims to present the Lithuanian tourism ecosystem. The systemic view of the tourism law is explored through a three-dimensional approach: the first part of the paper will be dedicated to the first dimension – legal basis (legal regulation and policy formation basis) –, the second one relates to an analysis of the institutional framework and, finally, the third part will focus on the last dimension, which is tourism services from service providers’ and tourists’ perspectives. Moreover, taking into account the pandemic situation, it will be discussed how this situation has influenced each of the three dimensions. 5 UNWO. European Union Tourism Trends, p. 7; available in https://www.eunwto.org/doi/pdf/10.18111/9789284419470. 6 OECD. Tourism Policy Responses to the coronavirus (COVID-19). Updated 2 June 2020; available in https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/view/?ref=124_124984-7uf8nm95se&title=Covid19_Tourism_Policy_Responses. 7 Evaluation of decisions taken during the COVID-19 pandemic from legal, managerial and economic perspectives. Research report, 2020, Mykolas Romeris University.
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