It is impossible to ignore tourism. It has grown into what is widely described as the world’s largest industry and, for many destinations; it represents a vital source of income, foreign exchange and employment. More importantly, however, tourism is about people. In 2002 over 190 million tourists visited the UK contributing approximately £79.9 billion to its economy, and supporting an estimated 2,127,200 employees (staruk 08/2003). As a result of its tremendous growth, the travel and tourism industry has increasingly become the subject of regulations, not only from the UK Parliament but also from the European Union. The new Parliament in Scotland and the Assemblies in Wales, Northern Ireland and London also have powers to regulate the industry. In the UK we have two sources of law – legislation and case law. Legislation

Accurate, and where necessary, kept up to date;

“ an activity which is beyond the sea and which terrorises people and Governments

A landmark court case involving a travel agent who breached the Data Protection Act 1998 was that of Quality Travel v Zbigniew Soltysik. Mr Soltysik, whose case has been used as an example to other employees not to abuse mailing lists, was the first travel industry employee to have committed an offence under the 1998 Act. On 14th November 2003 Nottingham Crown Court heard how Mr Soltysik left Quality Travel, where he worked from 2001 to 2002, to set up his own travel company. However, when he left, he took with him the company’s database containing names and addresses of 574 clients. His act of crime was discovered when Quality Travel received numerous complaints from customers who had received mailing shots from Soltysik’s new travel company. Mr Soltysik pleaded guilty to twenty six accounts of unauthorised disclosure of personal data. Judge Joan Butler QC commented,

Transferred only to countries that offer adequate protection.” (Stephen John 29/11/00)

Some topics in this essay:
Discrimination Act, Acts Parliament, Safety Act, Tours Ltd, Butler QC, Stephen John, Edwin Jowitt, Lord Denning, Business Law29/11/03, Law Statutes, disabled people, data protection, health safety, data protection act, protection act, tourism providers, tourism industry, protection act 1998, tours ltd, swans tours, act 1998, swans tours ltd, health safety act, act etc 1974, etc 1974,