Tourism Law in Europe

84 TOURISM LAW IN EUROPE 5.2. This Decision’s Reasons The Belgian government felt it was justified to be flexible and to allow travel organisers to find solutions to respect the rights of consumers while ensuring their survival. By issuing a voucher, the government considered the interests of the consumer to be preserved since the reimbursement of the amount paid by them is not refused definitively but is simply granted in a different form. The need for flexibility due to the financial distress faced by the travel industry has been recognised by the European Commission itself which, in an informal note of 19 March 2020, stated that: “Having regard to the strains on liquidity of organisers because of missing new bookings coupled with reimbursement claims, travellers should consider accepting that their package tour is postponed to a later point in time. Having regard to the current uncertainty to make travel plans, that could be done by means of a credit note (socalled “voucher”). However, the traveller should have the possibility to ask for a full refund if, eventually, he or she does not make use of the voucher. Moreover, it should be ensured that the voucher is covered by appropriate insolvency protection”6. This clear need to support the sector was reiterated by the Commission in a Recommendation of 13 May 2020 in which it invited travellers to accept vouchers: “Consumer and passenger organisations at Union and national level should encourage travellers and passengers to accept, instead of reimbursement in money, vouchers that present the characteristics, and benefit from the insolvency protection, described in this Recommendation”7. Indeed, the Recommendation of 13 May 2020 established an insolvency protection system to cover vouchers issued by travel organisers. This recommendation has been followed by the Belgian government that implemented it through Article 3 of the Ministerial ruling mentioned above. In this way, travellers are assured of a refund if they do not use the voucher to 6 Commission, Information on the package travel directive in connection with the covid-19, available at https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/coronavirus_info_ptd_ 19.3.2020.pdf. 7 Commission recommendation (EU) 2020/648 of 13 May 2020 on vouchers offered to passengers and travellers as an alternative to reimbursement for cancelled package travel and transport services in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, available at https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legalcontent/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32020H0648&from=FR.

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