Tourists are turning their backs on Iceland because the country is resuming commercial whaling, a tour operator claims. Whale watching is one of Iceland's main tourist attractions, but bookings have fallen 25 per cent in the two weeks since it has resumed hunting.Read more here.

The drive to protect its famous monuments and nature reserves continues to get stronger and stronger in China. Following a recent decision to pass its first set of laws against vandalizing the country s legendary Great Wall, China has now stepped up protection of its state-level nature reserves to crack ...

The Timeshare Directive was adopted in 1994 and gives timeshare buyers rights throughout the European Union. It applies to any timeshare contract made under the law of an EU country or where the property is in the European Economic Area (EEA). All Member States have implemented the directive into their ...

To protect passengers against the threat of liquid explosives, the European Union has adopted new security rules that restrict the amount of liquids that one can take through security checkpoints.The new rules apply from Monday, 6 November 2006 at all airports in the EU and in Norway, Iceland and Switzerland ...

1. Red Seal is an Ontario (Canada) tour operator. 2. It entered into three "Guarantee Contracts" with the Ontario-based representative of six Caribbean hotels. The Guarantee Contracts dealt with general issues such as no black-out periods, no bumping of Red Seal pax, no better terms to a Red Seal competitor, ...

First Mercosur Tourism Law Congress: Radisson Hotel, Montevideo, 9-10 November 2006 Tourism advocates of Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Chile, Mexico, Spain, Venezuela and Bolivia. Further information: www.fcu.com.uy(Originally posted by Diego Benítez)

A new generation of United States passports, equipped with short-range radio tags, are beiing distributed . More than 15 million Americans are expected to apply for and receive the high-tech document in the next year. Within a decade, every US passport will contain an RFID (radio frequency identification) chip.Privacy advocates ...

Officials in Thailand say three months of flooding have turned the foundations of the ancient city of Wiang Kum Kam into mud. Wiang Kum Kam was originally founded around 1286 by King Meng Rai and became the capital of the Lanna kingdom before flooding forced the ruler to move his ...

The Western Australia government has imposed new strict standards for adventure tourism operators, in a move to protect tourists following some near tragedies in the state's wilderness areas.Under the new legislation, accreditation will be compulsory for all adventure tourism operators. Details here.

Iceland's government announced a plan to build what the prime minister referred to as soon-to-be Europe's largest national park.The establishment of Vatnajokull national park is the largest nature protection project in Iceland to date. The national park will not only provide a platform for protection of the unique nature of ...

Nineteen states including include Brazil, Britain, Chile, Cambodia, Cameroon, Congo, Cyprus, France, Gabon, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Jordan, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritius, Nicaragua, Norway and South Korea are committed to levying a tax on airline tickets as part of a new way to treat people in poor countries for AIDS, tuberculosis ...

During the last week of October, the Malta Tourism Society will be hosting delegates from the European Union of Tourism Officers (EUTO) to a convention and study visit. This annual event is part funded through the Leonardo da Vinci mobility initiatives which promote cultural and educational exchange across Europe.Themed Developing ...

Article 16 of EC Regulation 261/2004 on confers increased protections on most air passengers flying into or out of Community airports for delay caused by denied boarding, cancellation or long delay. Article 16 requires member states to ‘designate a body responsible for the enforcement of this Regulation … Where appropriate, ...

Airlines continue to engage in misleading price advertising. (See my paper at the 17th IFTTA Conference 2005, available at https://iftta.org/web/2005AirAdEUIrsh.html). Among other things and according to the website of the Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland (http://www.asai.ie/) airlines continue to be in breach of the advertising industry's own code of advertising ...

The United States and the European Union failed to reach a new deal on sharing air passenger data before a Saturday deadline. Reaching an agreement before the deadline was an EU priority to ensure that airlines could continue to legally submit data about passengers flying from Europe to the United ...

Responding to a recent report related to several world heritage sites being taken off the tourism map, the Queensland Tourism Industry Council has rejected the opinion that suggests closing off most of the Great Barrier Reef to tourism.According to The Courier Mail in Australia, coral reef expert Terry Hughes, the ...

The popular tourist destination in India is set to hire women to patrol its white-sand beaches as lifeguards for the first time. Goa will train women and men from the local fishing community to serve as lifeguards. This is remarkable as women in India going out to beaches in swimsuit ...

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), announced earlier this week that "public interest will best be served by maintaining the status quo" insofar as maintaining its air-transportation price-advertising rule. The DOT's decision was in keeping with the American Society of Travel Agents' (ASTA) comments , in which the Society argued ...

According to the EU Press Room, "Fragmentation of the aviation regulation system still remains a problem. Today high level representatives of the national civil aviation administrations, aviation industry and the Commission met in Brussels to find ways to improve the efficiency of the system, cut costs and cover possible gaps ...

The Civil Aviation Ministry in India has expressed concern over the impact of imposition of service tax on air travel on tour and travel business. In conjunction with the Tourism Ministry, Civil Aviation Ministry is intending to ask India's Finance Minister to reconsider the decision to impose service tax on ...

United States District Court for the Southern District of New York overturned a bankruptcy court decision and granted Northwest Airlines' request for a preliminary injunction to prevent a threatened strike or work action by the company's flight attendants, represented by the Association of Flight Attendants.For details see http://www.travelindustrydeals.com/news/875(Originally posted by ...

Thai government on Friday announced new visa regulations for tourists limiting the foreign visitors to a maximum stay of 90 days each every six months in order to ease social problems and crime in the country. For details see http://www.travelindustryreview.com/news/3059(Originally posted by Michael Wukoschitz)

Australian lawmakers are in a heated debate over a proposal that would require visitors to Australia to sign an 'Australian values' pledge before being granted a visa to enter the country, according to published reports. "It's wrong to expect tourists to sign up to a country s values for a ...

From HospitalityLawyer.com, I've just recieved this information request:"HOUSTON - The nominations are winding down. Thank you for the tremendous response thus far, though there is still time left to recognize general counsel and private attorneys for the 2007 Anthony G. Marshall Award. One deserving person who has made a significant ...

As stated by the EU Press Room, "The Commission has adopted a Green Paper on detection technologies for law enforcement, customs and other security authorities to further enhance the interaction between public and private sectors and help Member States acquire the best tools available at the lowest possible cost.'Recent events ...

Airports Council International is to Airports what IATA is to carriers. The two international trade associations are at odds over several issues regarding airport costs, responsibility for pre-boarding security costs, etc. Earlier this year, ACI issued a report that dealt in detail with what it calls the three weak links ...

OGH had to decide whether low price advertising of a no-frills airline was misleading. Plaintiff (another airline) claimed that defendant was promoting low price ticktes on his website although these tickets were not avialable on each flight, sometimes not even over the period open for online-booking, or only available for ...

Supreme Court (BGH) affirmed liability for water slide accident and dismissed tour operator's appeal. Plaintiffs' eleven year old child was killed at a holiday resort in Greece when his arm got trapped in a water slide's suction pipe which was not protected by a grating. The water slide had been ...

According to the EU Press Room, "The Commission has decided to open a formal investigation into the rules imposed by Italy on 2 May 2006 on 16 air routes between three Sardinian airports and important airports on the Italian mainland. The Commission has serious doubts as to the conformity of ...