The hospitality and tourism industry is a large part of the UAE economy, as Dubai and Abu Dhabi continue to establish themselves as popular travel destinations. Our experienced specialist Hospitality & Tourism team advises on numerous areas relevant to clients operating in this sector within the UAE.

We advise owners, managers, franchisors, developers, suppliers, consultants, restaurant owners and lenders on the entire development life-cycle of their projects. Our Hospitality & Tourism team maintains good relationships with the relevant government authorities and is supported by our colleagues in Corporate, Commercial, Real Estate, Banking & Finance, Employment, Dispute Resolution and Intellectual Property teams, offering clients highly comprehensive support.

The Hospitality law is a legal and social practice related to the treatment of a person's guests or those who patronize a place of business. Related to the concept of legal liability, hospitality laws are intended to protect both hosts and guests against injury, whether accidental or intentional.

What is Tourism Law?

In a nutshell, tourism law refers to either general government regulations or specific travel and hospitality industry laws. What follows is an overview of the laws governing tourism and an explanation of why they are so important to travel consumers.

Major Tourism Laws

Tourism laws refer to a combination of state, federal and international laws that regulate various aspects and functions of the travel industry. For instance, travel law may involve anything from hospitality to employment to public health regulations.

In America, there are a few prominent legal regulations, such as seller of travel laws. There are at least five states that maintain seller of travel laws. These states are Iowa, Hawaii, Florida, Nevada, California and Washington. To explain, a seller of travel law means that the state requires anyone who provides travel related services to register with the government. They will be required to display their registration number on their advertising. Consequently, travel consumers in these states are guaranteed a minimum level of recourse if they are the victims of fraud or exploitation. Even though almost all other states do not have official travel regulation agencies, most states have some sort of lax financial security registrations, such as posting bonds with the government.