Dealing with tourism contract disputes by three departments to promote industry recovery

　　People’s Daily Online, Beijing, August 2 (Bai Fan) With the gradual recovery of the tourism market, the issue of tourism contract disputes is also facing a new situation. A few days ago, the Supreme People’s Court, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism jointly issued the "Notice on Properly Handling Disputes over Epidemic-related Tourism Contracts" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"), which provides for establishing and improving a diversified solution and linkage mechanism to properly handle disputes over epidemic-related tourism contracts according to law. The "Notice" pointed out that the epidemic has led to an increase in tourism contract disputes. All parties should coordinate in handling disputes, give consideration to the protection of tourists’ rights and interests and the development of the tourism industry, actively guide tour operators and tourists to negotiate reconciliation, mutual understanding and mutual accommodation, share risks and tide over difficulties together, and encourage non-litigation to solve problems.

　　Properly resolve contract disputes and promote the healthy development of the industry

　　The Notice pointed out that the COVID-19 epidemic had a great impact on the tourism industry, which led to a sharp increase in the number of tourism contract disputes. After the introduction of the mechanism to deal with the contract disputes involving epidemic tourism, it has brought new solutions to new problems in the industry. A number of industry experts and practitioners told People’s Daily that the introduction of this mechanism has provided a better direction for the industry to handle disputes and protect the rights and interests of tourists, and has a more positive impact on the healthy development of the tourism industry.

　　Fan Wenwen, a partner of Guangdong William. J Law Firm, said that the surge in tourism contract disputes affected by the epidemic has brought heavy pressure to tourism operators. This mechanism can help tourists and tourism operators to deal with disputes as soon as possible, minimize the losses caused by the epidemic and promote the recovery and development of tourism.

　　Zhou Mingxi, founder of Jingjian think tank, also pointed out that tourism is a pillar industry of the country, among which there are a large number of practitioners, especially some tourist attractions, destinations, villages and towns, and tens of thousands of people rely on the tourism industry for their livelihood. "In fact, due to the epidemic, there are many cases where tourists can’t travel or travel is blocked. Many tourism companies have made full refunds. But now, the force majeure has become a normal epidemic prevention. How to set up a better solution mechanism under the new situation has become a concern within the tourism industry and consumers. "

　　Multi-department collaborative processing and multi-dimensional construction of online litigation channels

　　Under the normalization of epidemic prevention, the problems of tourism disputes are also different, and the situations involved are more complicated. In order to fully and effectively solve these problems, the Notice proposes that administrative organs and judicial organs should work together to deal with disputes over epidemic-related tourism contracts, and establish and improve a diversified settlement and linkage mechanism. The first point is to establish a diversified settlement mechanism for tourism contract disputes, each of which performs its own duties.

　　In this regard, Zhang Si, a lawyer of Beijing Jingshi Law Firm, believes that this mechanism can improve the probability of successful mediation, reduce the proportion of unsuccessful mediation, reduce the cost of tourists’ complaints, reduce litigation and save judicial costs. "Ordinary people are happy when they travel, and travel agencies also hope to earn reasonable profits when they do business. Once a dispute arises, neither side wants to solve the problem through litigation, which is time-consuming and laborious. Through this mechanism, the efficiency of handling disputes can be improved, and the most important thing is that the results can be settled. After judicial confirmation, the mediation book has compulsory execution, which is conducive to truly solving the problem. "

　　She further pointed out that China’s "Tourism Law" stipulates the way to deal with tourism disputes, and the people’s governments at or above the county level designate or set up a unified tourism complaint handling institution. The breach of contract between tourists and travel agencies during the performance of the Travel Contract can be handled through this agency. However, in the face of complicated complaints, unreasonable or excessive rights protection of tourists, and mutual prevarication among travel agencies, it is more difficult to deal with. "The establishment of a diversified solution and linkage mechanism has a good impact on the healthy development of the tourism industry, which can improve the importance attached by both parties to the contract to the performance of the tourism contract and respect each other’s contract spirit."

　　In addition, in the specific handling process, the Notice requires the cultural and tourism departments, the judicial administrative departments and the people’s courts to balance the interests of all parties, taking into account the protection of tourists’ rights and interests and the development of the cultural tourism industry. "All departments should properly resolve contract disputes when handling them, and strive to let the vast majority of travel contract disputes related to the epidemic situation be resolved in a non-litigation manner to maintain a good order in the tourism market." In this regard, Zhou Mingxi said that in the past, when encountering force majeure factors, tourism companies would make a full refund. For example, at the beginning of the epidemic, many tourism companies promised a full refund. However, with the normalization of epidemic prevention, the role of force majeure has changed. Therefore, under the refund and coordination mechanism mentioned in this Notice, tourism enterprises can negotiate with consumers in different ways, such as changing routes, which can guarantee the benign operation of the industry to a certain extent.

　　At the same time, in order to reduce the communication costs of all parties during the epidemic and provide more convenient litigation services, the people’s courts have opened up a green channel for litigation of tourism contract disputes. In addition, the "Notice" pointed out that places with conditions can also give full play to the role of the "Tourism Circuit Court" at the grassroots level and mediate tourism contract disputes in a timely manner. Make full use of the online litigation platform, carry out online mediation and online trial activities, and effectively use the "smart court" to solve the practical difficulties of the masses.

　　Defining refund conditions and sharing epidemic prevention costs

　　It is worth noting that the issue of refund, which has always attracted much attention, is also clearly reflected in the Notice. The "Notice" pointed out that it is necessary to properly handle the refund of fees after the termination of the contract. If the travel contract is terminated due to the epidemic situation or epidemic prevention and control measures, the tour operators and tourists should negotiate on the refund of travel expenses. If the two sides can’t reach an agreement through consultation, the tour operator shall refund the balance to the tourists after deducting the non-refundable fees that have been paid to the land agency or the performance assistant. At the same time, however, the Notice also explains the relevant fees paid, requiring tour operators to provide evidence that they have paid the relevant fees and cannot return them. Regarding this issue, Zhou Mingqi believes that the payment terms in each chain in the tourism industry are different, and how to define the "generated related expenses" is difficult and needs to be further refined.

　　On the other hand, the Notice also mentioned that if the refund cannot be made under objective circumstances, it should be explained to the tourists in time and a written promise of the refund period should be issued. Zhang Si said that this point is still difficult in operation, and should be refined on specific issues. "Consumers can reach a refund agreement with travel agencies to refine related issues, such as agreeing on the amount, time or conditions of refund, and finally agreeing on the liability for breach of contract for overdue refund or non-refund. "Fan Wenwen also pointed out that in practice, there may be a problem that the refund period is too long. Therefore, in the process of dispute mediation, the parties should understand each other, fully negotiate the refund period, and guide the tour operators to refund the fees in time.

　　In mid-July, the General Office of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued a notice on promoting tourism enterprises to expand their resumption of work, announced the resumption of inter-provincial (autonomous regions and municipalities) group travel and "air ticket+hotel" business, and elaborated on the epidemic prevention work of travel in detail, requiring travel agencies to be equipped with various protective equipment. The Notice on Properly Handling Disputes Related to Epidemic Tourism Contracts issued this time stipulates that tourism operators should take corresponding measures to prevent the epidemic from affecting the personal safety of tourists, and the expenses thus incurred should be shared by tourism operators and tourists. The Notice also requires that if tourists are stranded due to epidemic situation or epidemic prevention and control measures, tourism operators should take corresponding reasonable resettlement measures, so the increased accommodation expenses shall be borne by tourists, and the increased return expenses shall be shared by tourism operators and tourists. Zhang Si believes that this is in accordance with the provisions of the fourth paragraph of Article 67 of the Tourism Law, causing tourists to stay, and travel agencies should take corresponding resettlement measures. "The law does not stipulate the proportion of sharing. I think sharing can be regarded as 50% for each. “