Vietnamese tour operator Travel Life has committed several legal violations, a local government agency concluded, after 701 travelers it sent to Thailand were abandoned in the foreign country and forced to survive on their own.

>> 701 Vietnamese travelers abandoned in Thailand The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism yesterday met with Travel Life director Nguyen Thi Kim Khanh to discuss what had happened to the Vietnamese travelers who took a six-day tour to Thailand organized by her firm on June 12. The department concluded that Travel Life has committed at least six violations of the Law on Tourism, including having no license for international travel operation, not locating its office at the registered office address in its business license, employing tour guides without a practitioner’s certificate, and no reporting on business results related to international travel activities. The department said it will issue a decision to punish the company for such violations and will submit a report about the case to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT).

Earlier on June 18, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Hoang Tuan Anh ordered the ministry's Inspectorate to work with the department to handle the case. He also asked VNAT to submit a report about the case to the ministry before June 24. 

The travelers took part in a tour offered by Travel Life, located in HCMC’s Tan Binh District, at a charge of VND6.4 million (US$308) per tourist on a six-day tour starting June 12.

But after they arrived in Thailand, Thai 2020 -- a business partner of Travel Life -- refused to continue serving the group, explaining that under a contract signed between the two firms, Thai 2020 would have been paid the entire remaining amount for their service when the travelers arrived in Thailand, but in fact Travel Life only paid them $10,000. 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. All these travelers finally returned to Vietnam on June 17. Nguyen Thi Huong, deputy director of My Uc A Travel Company, which sold air tickets to the group to Thailand, told Tuoi Tre that Travel Life had not complied with payment provisions under a contract between them. My Uc A signed a contract with Travel Life to sell 352 air tickets worth VND2.5 billion ($121,400), and 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 has phoned Huong to promise to pay up.