Research On The Punitive Damages Of Travel Contract

With the development of economy and society, the pace of life is speeding up. In modernsociety, traveling has already becomes a main life way by which people can relieve pressureand improve the quality of life. But in tourism activities, due to the profit-seeking nature oftour operators, the rights and interests of tourists are generally and seriously violated by them.In practice, because of the disadvantaged position of tourists and high cost of rights protection,safeguarding rights is difficult for tourists. Tourists who have difficulties in protecting rightstend to give up their rights, which make the illegal cost of tour operators extremely low. As aresult, the rights and interests of tourists are violated more unscrupulously. We everyone arepotential tourists, so the social harmfulness of tourism operator’s illegal acts is very great.However, current legal system of our country only admit tourists’ rights to claimcompensatory damages, which make the tourists cannot obtain a full compensation eventhough they win the lawsuit. In the opinion of the author, in order to fundamentally curbtourism operator’s wanton infringement behavior, it is necessary to introduce punitivedamages system into the travel contract.This paper consists of four parts. In the first part, the author set forth the connotation andfunction of the punitive damages system, academic circles dispute about punitive damagessystem in our country and punitive damages system’s existence value. In this part, the authorcome to the conclusion that punitive damages system has nature of private law, and considerthat the punitive damages system can fully implement and strengthen the function of tortliability law, conforms to the new concept of justice, and unjust enrichment will not occur.In the second part, the author analyzes the necessity and feasibility of punitive damagesin the travel contract. In this part, the author expounds the present situation that the rights andinterests of tourists are generally damaged, and discusses the reasons that the tourists give upremedy. In the author’s opinion, only by introducing punitive damages into the travel contract,can we fundamentally protect the disadvantaged tourists and curb tourism operator’s wantoninfringement behavior. At the same time, introducing punitive damages into the travel contractis feasible.In the third part, the author explores the specific application of punitive damages in travel contract. In this part, the author discusses the components of punitive damages in thetravel contract, the relationship between punitive damages and other civil liabilities and theirprocessing, and when the judge determine the amount of punitive damages，the problems andfactors they should pay attention to and consider.The fourth part is conclusion part. In this section, the author come up with ownlegislative and judicial suggestions about introduction of punitive damages in the travelcontract. The author thinks that, our country should enact a special tourism basic law, inwhich we define the punitive damages system; in the meantime, we should have more strictprocedures about the application of punitive damages in travel contact. Finally, the author putsforward system ideas about setting up a court which designed to handle small tourismdisputes.