The legal position of the travel agent

Abstract

As one begins to tackle a subject such as "The Legal Position of the Travel Agent" two difficulties immediately seem to present themselves, namely: can all the aspects of the subject, involving an endless variety of contracts regarding the travel agent, be dealt with in a mere thesis? and: on what legal sources could such a discussion be based? The relationships entered into by the travel agent concern so many different contracting parties that after due consideration, I decided to limit this thesis to a discussion 0£ just two such relationships; that between the travel agent and the client and the other between the travel agent and the hotelier. The first relationship was obviously chosen because it is the only one where the agent and the client are concerned, and also because it initiates the travel process. The hotel contract, on the other hand, is invariably considered as the major service or arrangement of a tour, and is definitely the most comprehensive, together perhaps with transport facilities, such as an airline, which, however, is not of such interest to us in Malta. The hotel contract is the most important because Malta is at the receiving end of tourism. Necessarily, a discussion of the contract will concentrate heavily on a consideration of the particular situation on the Island, and I have tried to deal with the specific problems that arise constantly between Maltese hoteliers and foreign tour operators. The nature of the hotel contract as such is not a subject of this thesis, but a consideration of such contract between the travel agent and the hotelier, as opposed to that with the client, is a must. The nature of the contract was the subject of another thesis and thus not within my competence.