Tour and travel operators launch exclusive club
Posted by admin in General on 03 20th, 2011
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Four tour and travel operators from across Africa have formed an exclusive customer services club through which they expect to offer uniform services to their clients.
While launching the club in Kampala last week, Mr Declan Peppard, the Simba Travelcare managing director, said the club is a network of tour and travel agencies that are committed to ensuring that customers enjoy real value added to their travel experience.
He said: “We are committed to ensuring that our customers get a uniform service from where the network has a presence. Right from airport transfers, hotel bookings, taxi bookings as well as making reservations.”
Mr Sudir Ruparelia, a Kampala businessman with a chain of hotels one of the guests, welcomed the move adding that government needs to liberalise the accommodation business in game parks to enable the private sector to invest there.”
He said: “There is need for the government to open up game parks so that people can invest in the lodging and restaurant business. ”
read comments (0)Travel agencies cancel Japan tours
Posted by admin in General on 03 18th, 2011Travel agencies cancel Japan tours
By Sara Grosse |
Posted: 17 March 2011 2026 hrs
SINGAPORE: Safety concerns have led some travel agencies to cancel their tour packages to Japan from now till mid-April.
Travel agencies Channel NewsAsia spoke to said they are advising customers to either postpone their trips or change their destination to an unaffected area.
CTC Travel said about 1,000 customers have been affected by the cancelled tours.
Meanwhile ASA Holidays said about 600 people have been affected.
A majority of customers have opted to change their travel destinations, while some have asked for a refund.
The agencies said travel-study tours in June have also been cancelled.
CTC Travel senior vice-president of Marketing Alicia Seah said: “At this moment, the airlines have given us travel advisories which defer from one another and most of them provide us travel advisory for travel till April 10.
“So at this juncture, we are liaising closely with the airlines”.
-CNA/wk
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PARLIAMENT: Matta Cannot Refund Buyers Cheated By Travel Agents – Ng
Posted by admin in General on 03 15th, 2011March 14, 2011 19:53 PM
PARLIAMENT: Matta Cannot Refund Buyers Cheated By Travel Agents – Ng
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KUALA LUMPUR, March 14 (Bernama) — The Tourism Ministry cannot force or order the Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (Matta) to refund deposits to travel package buyers cheated by tour agents, the Dewan Rakyat was told Monday.
Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen said there was no specific regulation which enabled the ministry to do this.
However, the ministry had taken the initiative to get both parties to the dispute to resolve their problem through negotiations, she said.
Last year, Ng said, the ministry resolved 152 of the 192 complaints from local and foreign tourists of having been cheated by tour agencies.
“One complaint involved a travel package sold at the Matta Travel Fair by a tour agent where the purchasers did not get what they were promised. This case has been resolved,” she said in a written reply to Wee Choo Keong (IND-Wangsa Maju).
Wee had wanted to know whether the ministry proposed to come up with regulations forcing Matta to establish a compensation fund to reimburse purchasers who had made advance payments for air tickets or tours to errant travel agents at the Matta Travel Fair.
Ng said purchasers were also advised to refer their cases to the Consumer Claims Tribunal, file civil suits or lodge police reports should there be elements of fraud in their cases.
— BERNAMA
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Chinese tourists warned of travel dangers
Posted by admin in General on 03 15th, 2011
BEIJING / SHANGHAI – China’s tourism authorities on Sunday asked people to be prudent before traveling to Japan and warned Chinese tourists in the country about aftershocks.
The National Tourism Administration (NTA) suggested that tourists avoid visiting Fukushima and Sendai, where quake and tsunami damage is the most severe.
Many Chinese travel agencies have suspended Japan-bound tours after the devastating earthquake struck the country last Friday and are now busy arranging the return of stranded travelers.
Major tourism agencies, such as China Travel Service, China International Travel Service (CITS), CYTS Tours, Ctrip Travel, Comfort Travel and Caissa International Travel Service, said that they have been withdrawing tour groups from Japan, and they will refund all tour fees, except fees for visas if they have been issued, to customers who decide to cancel their trips.
“Our last tour groups stranded in Japan will all return home on Tuesday,” Ma Xing, a marketing staff member with Ctrip Travel, told China Daily.
The agency said it had nine tour groups with a total of 193 tourists traveling around the country when the quake struck.
“Our two groups of 34 tourists will fly back to Fujian province from Tokyo on Monday,” said Yao Yao, marketing manager with the Beijing-based company China Comfort Travel.
“Due to safety concerns, we would wait until April before our tour groups can return to destinations such as Fukuoka and Kagoshima,” said Liu Xin from China Youth Travel Service’s Shanghai office.
She explained that both tour groups and individual travel was on hold.
Luo Jun, an official from Guangdong province foreign affairs office, said 777 tourists from the province were traveling in Japan when the quake struck, and none were killed or injured.
Luo said that most had returned, with the remaining 212 due to return by Wednesday.
With its extraordinary natural scenery such as Mount Fuji, metropolitan city tours in Tokyo and Nara, ski resorts such as Niseko in Hokkaido and its unique cuisine and hot spring hotels, Japan was the number one foreign destination for Chinese tourists last year.
Last July, Japan eased conditions for granting visas to individual Chinese tourists. The number of tourists from China hit a record of 1.97 million in 2010, an increase of 26.82 per cent compared with 2009, according to the Chinese National Tourism Academy.
Industry insiders said the earthquake and tsunami will have a big impact on the travel market.
Zhang Wei, general manager of the outbound travel department of CITS, told China Daily that the agency planned to send 1,400 tourists to Japan in March and April, but its plans were now on hold.
“Although some customers would like to go after the disaster, we tried to dissuade them from going there due to concerns over aftershocks,” she said.
A employee of Caissa Travel Service told China Daily the agency has already received requests from more than 200 tourists to cancel their trips.
-China Daily/Asia News Network
Japan earthquake: Travelers and tour companies take a wait-and-see approach on …
Posted by admin in General on 03 15th, 2011
As Japan grapples with the aftermath of its devastating earthquake and tsunami, the travel world also struggles with how to respond.
Airlines already have offered refunds and waived change fees to passengers whose flights were immediately affected. The U.S. State Department updated its travel alert Sunday to include aftershocks, power outages and evacuations tied to the threat of a nuclear meltdown as reasons Americans might want to avoid traveling to Japan right now.
But many travelers and tour operators are still mulling whether to continue with their plans in the next few months. “Normally, we don’t have a feel for about a week until after the event has happened,” says Linda Kundell, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Tour Operators Assn. “That’s when you get more information and see if people are canceling.”
The end of March, traditionally the beginning of cherry blossom season, April and May are peak times to visit Japan. Some companies have contacted their partners in Tokyo and other parts of the country to see whether upcoming trips are viable.
“We have four different programs going to Japan in spring,” said Max Ali of SITA World Tours. “Obviously, we’re not operating any of them.” The five-, 10- and 14-day land tours that SITA usually runs at this time of year have been canceled through the end of April.
Why that date? “No scientific reason. it’s based on the feedback from local agents there,” Ali said. “They said it might take a few weeks to get back to normal in terms of tourist operations. It’s just the uncertainty.” The company is offering full refunds (no travel insurance required) or rebookings to the 71 clients affected so far. The cancellation represents about $200,000 in lost tour revenues, Ali said.
Abercrombie Kent has a high-end Classic Japan tour that runs March 31-April 10. The cost for this trip that highlights Tokyo and Kyoto starts about $9,000 per person. Spokeswoman Jean Fawcett said in an e-mail Monday that the company is monitoring the situation but had not canceled the trip.
Tourists coming to Los Angeles from Japan also have been affected. Thomas Staley of Destination Japan, a tour operator that specializes in bringing Japanese tour groups to the United States, reports that 150 tourists who were due to arrive in L.A. last weekend had canceled. More cancellations were expected, he said.
Graham Kingsley of World Nomads travel insurance company offers this advice to those on the bubble. “Your tour operator should also be able to give specific advice about regions and disruption to travel plans,” he said in an e-mail Monday. “The Internet can also provide excellent information in this regard, and many people are turning to social media to find local relevant information in real time.
“Morally I think that if you’re visiting a part of Japan that has not been affected, you should support local tourism at what is a difficult time and continue with your trip.”
