News

The South African Transport Ministry has announced new measures to combat the country’s high road deaths rate. 26 British tourists were killed on Monday 27 September 1999 when the tour bus on which they were travelling left the road and tumbled down a mountainside. Another 9 people travelling on the bus were badly injured. Most […]

235 Welsh passengers walked free when their holiday aircraft from Cardiff broke into three pieces as it lurched off the runway at Gerona Airport on Tuesday 14 September 1999. One 83 year old passenger died three days later at his hotel. The Gerona Action Group has been established by a firm of lawyers in response

The English Tourism Council, the RACT and AA have collaborated to produce a new rating system for hotels in England. There is no statutory system currently in operation in the UK but the new system is expected to replace the plethora of grades and symbols that currently exist and cause confusion for tourists. The new

Amendments have been made to a proposed EU Directive on E-Commerce which aims to establish a coherent legal framework for e-commerce within the single market. The amendments clarify some of the definitions used and clarifies the link between this Directive and existing Directives on Data Protection. It also clarifies when an e-commerce transaction is legally

In August, the Turkish government approved new arbitration regulations which amend existing regulations and which provide for international arbitration to take place for the first time. The new regulations are expected to come into force in October.

Tourism continued to boom in 1998. Receipts from tourism in the EU grew by 6.5% to 155.6 bn (£101.9 bn / $163.04 bn) in 1998. France and Spain remain the most popular destinations in the EU but Greece had the biggest increse in travel (37.2%) and expenditure (33.4%).

EU Commissioner Mario Monti welcomed the abolition of duty-free sales as excellent news for EU taxpayers. This ends the massive subsidies of Euro 2 bn (£1.3 bn / $2.08 bn) which were paid to air and sea travel in the EU. [IP/99/432)

The new Commission President, Romano Prodi, announced his nominations for the new Commission in July. These include: Loyola de Palacio (Spain) – Transport and Energy; David Byrne (Ireland) – Health and Consumer Protection; Mario Monti (Italy) – Competition; and Antonio Vitorino (Portugal) – Justice and Home Affairs.

The Japanese parliament has approved a new law to prohibit the sexual exploitation of children. It prohibits commercial sexual relations with persons under 18 years of age and prevents Japanese tour operators from organising sex tours abroad. The unanimous vote of the parliament on 18 May addresses the criticism which has been made that Japan

Swissair and Boeing have offered compensation to relatives of the 229 people who died after their flight was lost off the coast of Nova Scotia (Canada) in September 1998. The offer was made in a pre-trial meeting in a Philadelphia federal court. As part of the deal, the relatives would have to waive their “16bn