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 —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS