Research On Legal Relationships Of Cruise Tourism Of China

The cruise industry has developed rapidly in China since 2006.Mainly focused on market cultivation,cruise industry's management and legislation fell behind the practical needs,a series of negative phenomenon take place,such as flooding of low-cost groups,burgeoning of vicious competition,abuse of exemption clauses,which makes industry legislation an urgent matter.Meanwhile,cruise industry developed cities in China represented by Shanghai,issued a series of policies such as "Shanghai cruise tourism management regulations","Shanghai cruise travel contract demonstration text" as normative guidance documents,and developed mechanisms such as the maritime insurance,multi-sectoral joint mediation mechanisms,which gradually opened the channels of small disputes for Chinese cruise tourists.However,the chaos of China's cruise tourism has not been fundamentally altered,cruise passenger casualties and other serious personal infringement cases still occur from time to time,"low-price outbound,countless shopping,insufficient protection of the rights of passengers" and other negative impression,is still filled with public awareness of the cruise industry.In the final analysis,in Chinese law of academic and practical circles,there is a kind of misunderstanding which reversed the relationship between cruise service providers and service sellers,countless debates obstruct the consensus of cruise legal relationship,limiting the legislative and administrative levels and deepness of cruise carrier responsibility regulation and special legal protection for cruise passengers.The reason behind this misunderstanding is the unique cruise ticket sales modes in China due to the unique tourism market environment and legal environment.Due to the restrictions on outbound tourism operators in domestic legislation such as the regulations on travel agencies,the direct selling model of cruise tickets in China is blocked,so cruise companies have to rely on travel agencies to sell cruise tickets and organize cruise tours through the mode of package travel.The insufficiency of study of package travel contract leads to the travel agency replaced the cruise companies of the undertaker of main responsibility of common carriers in maritime law.As a result,the distribution of rights and obligations of legal relations in cruise travel is obviously unbalanced.Therefore,it is of great theoretical and practical significance to make a systematic and in-depth study on the legal relationships of cruise tourism under Chinese legal and policy environment.Based on the the perspective of domestic transport law and tourism law,in reference of a large number of relevant law and cases in cruise industry developed countries,this article systematically research on Chinese cruise tourism and transportation legal relationships in domestic and exotic law,for example,the legal nature and performance,rights and duties of the related subject,and so on.This article mainly focused on the clarification of understanding of package tour contracts,cruise ship space charter contract,and cruise ticket contract.In addition,the distribution of cruise tourism subjects including package travel agents,cruise companies,cruise leisure and entertainment service operators and cruise tourists is another objective of the article.The final purpose of this article is to build and develop the legal framework of cruise tourism legal relationships in maritime law and other department laws,also provides sufficient theoretical basis of legislative suggestions for the improvement of the cruise tourism legal system in China.The full text is divided into five chapters.The first chapter introduced the historical evolution and summarized the industrial and cultural characteristics of cruise ship industry,also summarized the performance and causes of different cruise ticket sales patterns.The second chapter constructed the legal frameworks of Chinese cruise tourism legal relationships,including the definition and characteristics,department law positioning and lex causae.The third chapter researched different cruise sales mode in China,focused on how to clarify the misunderstanding in cruise ship charter mode and cruise tickets sale mode,pointed out that the different cruise sales mode will not affect the status of cruise companies.The fourth step straightened out the legal nature of the cruise space charter contract,along with the legal status and liability of the cruise leisure and entertainment service operators,clarified the legal relationships among cruise tourism service providers.The fifth chapter aimed at the most important part,namely the relationship of carriage of passengers by sea between cruise company and cruise passengers under the maritime law,including the recognition of carrier,the carrier's liability system,and the cruise company's duty of care.Therefore,the whole paper formed a complete system of research from the whole to the part,from the general to the special,from the comprehensive to the key.