About 150 travelers to Vietnam’s Phu Quoc Island caught in a dispute between travel agencies returned to Taiwan yesterday, while the remaining 600 are scheduled to return today.
Mega International Travel Service (美加國際旅行社), which operates the brand We Love Tour (年代旅遊), chartered four planes on Friday and Saturday last week to transport about 750 travelers to the island for five-day tours.
The travelers were then entrusted to Vietnamese tour companies for local tours, 292 of whom were entrusted to Vietnam WInnER International Travel Co.
Photo: Rachel Lin, Taipei Times
However, WInnER on Saturday asked the tourists to pay US$720 each to continue, saying that Mega had only paid one-10th of the tour fees before the group left Taiwan.
On Monday, the Tourism Administration said that more than 100 of the tourists had paid the extra amount.
However, Mega had also not paid for chartered flights it booked with Vietnam’s Bamboo Airways, it said, raising concerns that the tourists could become stranded on the island.
Yesterday, the agency said that Mega had reached an agreement with the Vietnamese companies and airline to complete the tours and return the travelers on chartered flights as scheduled.
All 750 travelers received their flight tickets home, 150 of whom flew back at noon yesterday, Mega general manager David Lin (林大鈞) said.
The remaining 600 are to fly back today on three separate flights, including all 292 in the disputed tour, he said.
The Tourism Administration also reiterated that it was working with the Travel Quality Assurance Association (TQAA) to investigate whether Mega had contravened the Regulations Governing Travel Agencies (旅行業管理規則) and its client contracts.
The case would be handled in three ways: The tourism agency would conduct an investigation, the TQAA would assist with consumer disputes and clients may file lawsuits against Mega, it said.
Later on Monday, Mega in a statement rejected WInnER’s claims, saying that the groups in question were the first cooperation between the Taiwanese firm and WInnER.
Mega said the two companies previously came to an agreement, observed by a witness, that all payments would be cleared by Feb. 26.
WInnER went back on the agreement and asked for the complete payment after a tourist complained about a meal on arriving in Vietnam, the company said.
It also implored tourists to “refrain from being held hostage financially” by the Vietnamese company, and promised to cover all losses sustained by its clients.
WInnER later that evening accused Mega of attempting to “lead the narrative.”
Although Mega said it would settle its accounts on Feb. 26, the two sides have no contract agreeing to that date, the Vietnamese company said, adding that their contract stipulates Jan. 31 as the payment deadline.
However, after being contacted by Tourism Administration officials in Ho Chi Minh City to facilitate negotiations and ensure the safe return of the tourists, and fielding many distress calls from tourists with nowhere to stay, the company decided to help despite the delayed payment, WInnER added.
Bamboo Airways yesterday said it also decided to help the travelers return out of humanitarian considerations, even though Mega had not paid for the return flights.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS