the tour operator
The legal text (in the official
English version) of § 651a I BGB
uses the term "travel organizer". That is a rather direct,
downright literal translation of the German term
"Reiseveranstalter" and indeed actually aptly describes his legal role
rather well too; nevertheless we will stick with "tour operator" since
that is a more familiar term and we already have enough strange word
constructions to deal with here.
It is important to distinguish the tour operator from a travel broker such as the travel agency.:
The tour operator as a party to the travel contract owes the organization and carrying out of the actual journey. He is responsible and ultimately liable for faults of his trip.
In contrast, the travel agency / the travel broker merely owes to inform about and help conclude the travel contract to which itself it is not party.
The travel agency as such is not liable for a delay of the airplane, for faults of the accommodation or bad food during the trip (unless it knows of these faults beforehand).
It would therefore seem rather attractive for a tour operator to call himself a mere travel broker and thereby elude liability for the trip. And indeed in the early days of modern tourism, before the advent of the German travel law of the §§ 651a ff BGB, tour operators would often claim that they merely brokered the contracts of the traveler with the individual service suppliers such as airlines or hotels; they would refer the traveler to the hotel itself if there was a problem with accommodation. They themselves, such was their reasoning, would not provide the often far-away room, but the hotel. The traveler should therefore claim his right to a fault-free accommodation directly from the hotel.
The courts even back then started to dismiss this argument and held the tour operators responsible for their product, the travel package. The introduction of the German Package Travel Law in 1979 had this basic rule codified: § 651a II BGB states that any statement of the tour operator to the effect that he is merely a travel broker, that he merely arranges for individual contracts with the service suppliers is disregarded as long as it is evident that he acts as a tour operator. The tour operator, called travel organizer, itself is legally defined in § 651a I 1 BGB: if a party offers a complete set of travel services bundled in one prefabricated package (-> travel package), it acts as a tour operator - and is hence responsible and liable for its product.
It is important to distinguish the tour operator from a travel broker such as the travel agency.:
The tour operator as a party to the travel contract owes the organization and carrying out of the actual journey. He is responsible and ultimately liable for faults of his trip.
In contrast, the travel agency / the travel broker merely owes to inform about and help conclude the travel contract to which itself it is not party.
The travel agency as such is not liable for a delay of the airplane, for faults of the accommodation or bad food during the trip (unless it knows of these faults beforehand).
It would therefore seem rather attractive for a tour operator to call himself a mere travel broker and thereby elude liability for the trip. And indeed in the early days of modern tourism, before the advent of the German travel law of the §§ 651a ff BGB, tour operators would often claim that they merely brokered the contracts of the traveler with the individual service suppliers such as airlines or hotels; they would refer the traveler to the hotel itself if there was a problem with accommodation. They themselves, such was their reasoning, would not provide the often far-away room, but the hotel. The traveler should therefore claim his right to a fault-free accommodation directly from the hotel.
The courts even back then started to dismiss this argument and held the tour operators responsible for their product, the travel package. The introduction of the German Package Travel Law in 1979 had this basic rule codified: § 651a II BGB states that any statement of the tour operator to the effect that he is merely a travel broker, that he merely arranges for individual contracts with the service suppliers is disregarded as long as it is evident that he acts as a tour operator. The tour operator, called travel organizer, itself is legally defined in § 651a I 1 BGB: if a party offers a complete set of travel services bundled in one prefabricated package (-> travel package), it acts as a tour operator - and is hence responsible and liable for its product.
© M. Hofbauer 2010; 2011(V1.08c) Impressum