However, Mr. Ha Tuan Minh, Director of Winner Company, responded to one of the two violations and announced the closure of the company due to "oppression".
Is there any "pressure" on businesses?
According to the minutes of the Inspectorate of Kien Giang Department of Tourism, Mr. Ha Tuan Minh committed an administrative violation. Specifically, despite having unilaterally notified the termination of the contract, he still kept the previous deposit of 700,000 NTD (about 500 million VND), received on January 18, 2024. At the same time, he continued to serve customers and collect service fees. This shows that Winner Company violated the general regulations on tourism business activities "not promptly notifying the competent state agency when discovering an accident or risk, incident occurring to tourists" and violated the regulations when doing travel business "without a travel contract with the business, tourists or representatives of tourists as prescribed".
Scene of collecting money from Taiwanese tourists took place at a hotel in Phu Quoc
The penalty imposed by the Kien Giang Department of Tourism Inspectorate stemmed from the incident of a group of 292 Taiwanese tourists stranded on Phu Quoc Island from February 11 to 13 (Lunar New Year). Previously, on September 12, 2023, Winner Company had a contract confirmation with We Love Tour Company based in Taipei and on January 24, 2024, sent 10 price quotes to 10 groups of tourists coming to We Love Tour. However, because the two companies did not agree on the agreement, on January 31, Winner Company unilaterally sent a notice to stop providing services to We Love Tour Company, but did not receive any confirmation or response.
However, on February 9, 2024, the group of 292 We Love Tour guests still arrived at Phu Quoc airport without a car, tour guide or hotel to stay. We Love Tour contacted Winner Company, and the two sides agreed to serve the group of 292 guests.
During the service of the group, because We Love Tour did not pay as agreed, Winner Company agreed with We Love Tour to require the guests to pay an additional amount of 720 USD/person. We Love Tour informed the guests to pay and keep the invoice for refund. Winner Company collected this amount from 90 guests, equivalent to more than 1.4 billion VND.
However, after the tour group returned to Taiwan, We Love Tour declared bankruptcy, was heavily in debt, and had its operating license revoked for 3 months. As a result, the debts in Vietnam, especially the amount of money Winner Company spent more than 3.4 billion VND to support the tour group, became bad debts.
300 tourists abandoned in Phu Quoc: Taiwanese company declares bankruptcy
No contract for "humanitarian assistance"
Regarding the two violations above, in the minutes, Mr. Ha Tuan Minh admitted that he did not promptly notify the competent state agency when discovering an accident or risk, incident that occurred to tourists. However, with the remaining violation, Mr. Minh did not admit because he thought that this was a form of support for the tourist group, so there was no travel contract as prescribed.
Speaking to Thanh Nien on February 29, Mr. Ha Tuan Minh said that the reason he did not admit to the "no contract" violation was because this was a case of "humanitarian support" and was not profitable. "We took the group of tourists and served them to protect the image of Phu Quoc and Vietnamese tourism, but the tourism management agency punished us, which was no different from blaming them, causing the company to lose its reputation. When they returned to Taiwan, many tourists thanked our company for helping them when they were abandoned by We Love Tour. Punishing the company for the above violations may make it impossible for us to recover the money spent on "humanitarian support" for the group of tourists because the Taiwanese side used this error to not pay the debt," said Mr. Minh.
Tourists return to Taiwan after stormy journey in Phu Quoc
In the agreement witnessed by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, We Love Tour committed to repaying more than VND3.4 billion to Winner Company by February 26, but the deadline has passed without any response. "We have contacted We Love Tour but have not received any response. The Taiwanese government has not made any move to support us in debt collection. Certainly, if there is compensation, they will support their tourists first, then us. It may take 3-5 years or we will never get our money back," said Mr. Minh, adding that after the incident, he will close the travel company and switch to another business.
Regarding the incident, on February 27, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism sent an official dispatch requesting the Kien Giang Department of Tourism to provide additional information related to the cooperation contract between We Love Tour Company and Vietnamese units and related documents (for the group of 292 guests); actual costs from Vietnamese enterprises that supported the group; proposals and recommendations from travel agencies providing services.
All of the above requests, according to the document, are for the Vietnam National Tourism Administration to plan to work with the representative of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Hanoi to ensure the rights of tourism service businesses, while at the same time minimizing and limiting similar incidents from happening...
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