Ministry told to shape up

Deputy Prime Minister, Yukhon Limlamthong, has ordered the Ministry of Tourism and Sports to improve its help channel to travellers who are cheated by travel agencies.
He suggested the ministry should lodge legal complaints on their behalf to speed up the process and relieve travellers of a legal cost burden.
He asked the ministry’s permanent secretary, Suwat Sidthilaw, to make a list of travellers who are have been cheated and failed to gain legal redress.
The list wil lbe sorted into groups to lodge complaints against travel agency wrong doers.
“The ministry’s Tourism Department licences tour operators, so when consumers suffer from unfair services offered by operators, the ministry has to take the lead in resolving the issue and providing a helping hand.”
His comments were prompted by a recent case of 200 domestic tourists filing complaints with police that they had been cheated after they bought packages for Phu Pranang Resort and Spa in Krabi through Phu Pranang Travel.
“Building tourists’ confidence and standardising services in the tourism industry needs to be improved,” he said.
Like all legal requirements in the country, applying the law and prosecuting offenders falls far short. Laws are in place but policing and applying the laws is often less than satisfactory.
Even tourism operators are worried over the lack of action. They have urged the government to do more, especially to apply laws and punish tour operators who cheat their customers.
One possible measure would be to issue certificates to qualified operators that guaranteed their service. This would boost consumers’ confidence before they decide to buy.
However, this fails to address the problem of a lack of action by ministry officials.
Every province has a ministry of tourism and sport office with a full complement of staff. They are not over worked. On the contrary they are doing very little to support tourism, police the laws that apply to tourism and provide the lead in tourism development.
Association of Thai Travel Agents president, Sisdivachr Cheewarattanaporn, said the ministry should tighten regulations.
“The ministry should check newcomers in the business, increase the company insurance capital from Bt100,000 as well as clearly blacklist both companies and personnel involved in cheating.”
So far, 230 victims have filed reports with police against Phu Pranang Resort. The complainants claimed a subsidiary of the resort sold low-priced packages at the Thailand Travel Expo in Bangkok September 2013. When tourists showed up, at the hotel it allegedly refused to honour the deals, even though it had received full payment.
More than 5,000 hotel packages were sold for the hotel by Phu Pranang Travel.
Phu Pranang Travel joined its fair in September last year at the Queen Sirikit National Conference Centre.
Department of Tourism’s Bureau of Tourism Business and Guide Registration confirmed the company licence had already been revoked. The agency’s commercial registration is in the name of Pranang Travel dated 12 February 2013 (licence number 33/05004).
According to the investigation team chief, Police Colonel Wittaya Meksai, the investigation will be completed soon and based on its conclusions warrants will be issued by the end of this month.
In the meantime fraud victims can complain to Krabi Tourist Centre Tel 094 182 1060-1 and Line: Kbtourassis or contact Consumer Protection Police Division call centre 1135.

Sourced: ttrweekly