TURIZMO SANTYKIŲ TEISINIS REGULIAVIMAS NACIONALINIU, TARPTAUTINIU IR SUPRANACIONALINIU LYGMENIMIS

Abstract

Authors examine the nature and scope of the tourism law and its place in the Lithuanian legal system according to the theory of law, assess the main legal acts regulating the tourism sector, their relation to each other and problematic aspects of their application in practice, disclose the status of the legal framework of the tourism sector at national, international and supranational levels, examine the impact of European Union law on the Lithuanian tourism law. Authors conclude that currently the tourism law may be treated not as a separate branch of law, but, according to its subject and method of regulation, as a separate inter-branch law institute. Legal norms of this law institute regulate the whole spectrum of social relations formed between various subjects acting in the field of tourism industry when organizing a travel (directly or through agents), providing tourist information, accommodation, health and wellness, transportation, catering, entertainment, conference organisation and other tourist services. After discussing the complex nature of legal norms regulating the tourism field it is concluded that the scope of the tourism law is changing, by encompassing new more complex relations with greater diversity, therefore the institute of the tourism law may gradually transform into an independent branch of law. The authors also discuss the legislative trends at national, international and supranational levels in the tourism law area with particular attention to the new Package Travel Directive. The article, inter alia, concludes that this Directive, due to a maximum harmonisation approach (as opposed to an earlier minimum harmonisation approach), is of particular importance to the national tourism law in Lithuania.