Recently Pieter Esterhugse, a South African visitor, and his wife went to
Tuan Chau International Cruise Port to visit Ha Long Bay on a tour booked
through Hotels.com. However, when he arrived, he discovered that there was
no ship as in the contract. After verifying the information, the Ha Long Bay
Management Board has arranged for the young couple to continue the trip
without paying extra fees on board.
This is the 3rd time in 2018, foreign visitors has been cheated when booking
tours through scam websites. Previously, Ms Lyne Ryan, a visitor from
Australia and some friends booked an
overnight tour in Halong Bay through
Spring Travel Agency in Hanoi. However in fact she had to go and spend the
night on a poor quality cruiser registered in Hai Phong and could not go to
Halong bay as promised.
By the end of July, a Spanish family of 5 people, was also cheated when
booking a tour to Ha Long Bay through the online travel site Expedia. The
common point of these incidents is that foreign visitors booking tours
online or through intermediaries, did not carefully check information before
making transactions. This has greatly affected the tourism industry as well
as the image and brand of Ha Long Bay in the eyes of international friends,
Bai Tu Long bay cruise.
In addition to providing fake information and poor quality services, some
companies also use the form of "hiding prices", giving only basic
information such as airline tickets, hotels, attractions in the tour without
adding baggage allowance for flights, travel insurance... making the actual
value of the trip and the tour price significantly different. If customers
do not read carefully the contents and information in the program,
especially the accompanying terms and conditions, they will be easily
deceived,
tours to Lan Ha bay.
In addition to the traditional fixed tour booking, many companies, units and
individuals also choose to post promotional information to "catch"
customers. For example: The intermediary will book a package including
airline tickets and motels or add tickets to visit some typical places
(combo); give visitors a gift tour of motels or a discount code for airfare
(voucher), with a discount of up to 50% compared to the listed fixed price.
To attract customers, some intermediaries also provide ambiguous
information, not specifying accompanying issues such as taxes, fees, usage
time...
Halong private charter
cruise
Faced with the above situation, in addition to actively propagating and
advising tourists, the Department of Tourism has sent a document to the
General Department of Tourism proposing to thoroughly solve cases of
violations. At the same time, coordinate with
Halong Bay Cruise Ship
Association and ship owners to update ship photos, owners, phone numbers on
the official website of Halong Bay Management Board, businesses to help
tourists easily access, find out information before booking a tour, avoid
any risk. According to Mr Le Viet Ha, Deputy Director of Vosa Quang Ninh
Travel Center, currently, any individual, unit or organization can carry out
transactions to provide travel services. Especially with the current
development of social networks, tourists are "besieged" with a huge amount
of information, it is difficult to distinguish fraudulent acts. Just
omitting a detail, information in the agreement, visitors can trap these
objects. Meanwhile, there are no sanctions to punish these acts. And if the
penalty is implemented, it will be difficult to look up and find the object
because the registration of information via social networks still has many
holes. Therefore, the most important thing for travelers to be vigilant,
always check the information carefully before booking any travel services.
