701 people experienced several uncomfortable days in Thailand after they were “abandoned” there by a Thai tourist company, which did not receive enough payment under a contract with its Vietnamese partner, Travel Life.

The group took part in a tour offered by Travel Life, located in Tan Binh District, Ho Chi Minh City. They arrived in Bangkok to attend a seminar hosted by Herbalife VN at a charge of VND6.4 million (US$308) for each traveler on a six-day tour starting June 12. After the event ended two days later, Thai 2020, a business partner of Travel Life, refused to continue serving the group of Vietnamese travelers. According to a contract signed between the two firms, Thai 2020 would be paid the entire remaining amount for their service when the travelers arrived in Thailand, but in fact Travel Life only paid them US$10,000. At 10 pm on June 12 the group arrived at Bangkok’s airport but had to wait until 1 am the next day, when they were taken by bus to their hotel, said K.B, from Quang Nam Province. About 80 people from the group were crammed into 45-seat buses, B said. Upon arriving at the hotel at 2 am, the group was informed that the hotel did not have enough rooms for them, so they had to stay with 3-4 people in a room. That morning a tour to Pattaya city began late due to a lack of buses, and once again the vehicles were overloaded. When they arrived in the city, the travelers were disappointed by the poor condition of the hotel rooms, with many rooms smelling musty, dangerous power panels, and even doors that could not be closed, said L. another traveler. “I cannot imagine that such a hotel can be ranked among three-star hotels,” L said. Over the following days the travelers were nearly abandoned, and they had to pay for food and means of transport, while such services must be provided by the operators of the travel trip, many travelers said. “We were informed by a tour guide of Travel Life that the company has yet to make payment as agreed to with its Thai partner,” said L.H, a traveler from Ba Ria-Vung Tau. Debts When contacted via phone by Tuoi Tre on Monday, a representative of the Donna Travel Company in Thailand said, “As a rule, travel companies here take 70 percent of the total charged for a tour before offering our services and will receive the remaining 30 percent a few weeks later.” In this case involving Travel Life, the total charge for the 6-day stay of each traveler was US$145, excluding the airfare from Vietnam, but Travel Life paid Thai 20-20 only US$10,000 when the travelers arrived in Thailand. This amount was too low, the representative said. Nguyen Thi Huong, deputy director of My Uc A Travel Company, which sold air tickets to the group to Thailand, also told Tuoi Tre that Travel Life had not complied with payment provisions under a contract between them. On June 5, My Uc A signed a contract with Travel Life to sell 352 air tickets, of which 299 were for the Hanoi-Bangkok route and the rest were for the HCMC-Bangkok route. The total value of the tickets was VND2.525 billion ($121,400), Huong said. Under the contract, Travel Life paid 60 percent of the amount to the seller and would pay the remaining amount at 11 am on June 12, a few hours before the flights departed. However, Travel Life did not pay the remaining amount as agreed, but a representative of the company phoned Huong to offer a guarantee for the unpaid amount, Huong said. She said that her company yesterday made arrangements for 169 members of the group to return to HCMC and Hanoi from Thailand.Unlicensed As shown on its business license, Travel Life has a registered office on Nhat Chi Mai Street in Tan Binh District, but an inspection team from the HCMC Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism could not find one when they arrived at the address yesterday afternoon. The team later discovered that the office is in fact located on Tan Son Nhi Street in Tan Phu District. There, the team found that the company has no a license to provide international travel services. The company’s director was absent at the time of inspection, so the team reported their finding with company workers as its representatives. These representatives admitted that the company had received VND4.5 billion ($216,300) from Herbalife VN but had failed to make enough payment to its Thai partner, Donna. Travel Life’s director, Nguyen Thi Kim Khanh, was requested to come to the department’s office today, June 18, to settle issues related to the company.