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Please tell us more about the strand-
ed tourist problem.
Our company is just one of the vic-
tims in this situation. Herbalife booked
travel for a group of 700 people. We
provided the costs that Travel Life, the
Vietnamese agent, had to pay in Thai-
land. As already reported, we refused
to accept this group from Travellife in
advance. Travel Life had already nego-
tiated with a Chinese company which
offered a rate of $95/pax for 700 pax.
However, there was another group
of 100 teachers who arrived on June
14, 2013. This group was actually our
full package booking. For this reason,
Travel Life called me three days prior
the departure of their group. There was
no reason that I should have taken
responsibility for the whole group of
700 people. With just three days to
prepare, it would have been very dif-
ficult to handle this group. However,
I suggested that I could assist Travel
Life, as my partner, to make a book-
ing for transfers, meals, and hotels.
All expenses were to be paid by Travel
Life. I informed them that it would be
very hard to get accommodation in
this period. Travel Life didn’t heed my
warnings. Finally, I quoted them $300
for one day’s transportation, $28/room/
night and $4/pax/meal. These were rea-
sonable prices.
I had only received $5,000 when
the first customers had arrived in Bang-
kok. They have to eat, to sleep, to trav-
el. How I can do that for them? In fact I
could have refused to serve them from
the first day - $5,000 was not enough.
Travel Life only informed us that the
remaining fees would be paid later. In
such a situation, I have two choices:
first, I can leave the group to wait until
I get some expenses from Travellife;
second, I can pay some advances for
the group. The customers have to eat,
to travel, and to sleep. I chose to take
them along the way as far as I could
and I told the customers exactly that - I
told them that afterwards they must
pay expenses such as food, board and
transportation.
I am a victim here. Thailand Author-
ity of Tourism (TAT) in Bangkok inter-
viewed me on June 21. TAT and Herbal-
ife (Thailand) appreciated my actions. It
is the responsibility of Travel Life, who
have to pay all accommodation costs in
Thailand. Thai2020 tried to look after all
700 people as long as we could.
Did you know that Travel Life had not
been licensed to organise tours out-
side Vietnam before signing a service
supply contract with them?
I really didn’t know. It is not a mat-
ter of asking for a licence from your
partner because you cannot bring the
customers abroad if you don’t have a
licence. In our country, you have to pro-
vide your company’s documents before
you take the customers through immi-
gration. Therefore, the responsibility in
this case seems to lie with Vietnamese
immigration – my question to them
is how can Travellife pass immigration
with 700 people?
How do you explain the bad situ-
ation that tourists had to suffer
when waiting for hours past mid-
night at the airport for hotel pick-up,
followed by a lack of rooms, being
abandoned and having to pay for
everything themselves?
You can see the facts in our job
order. Travellife needed to reduce the
costs. They requested only enough to
fill one coach at a time. I worked ac-
cording to Travellife’s requests. Travel-
life was the organiser and they had to
pay for all accommodations.
What do you say to Travel Life’s ac-
cusation that you broke the contract
by increasing the fees and providing
lower quality services?
I really need to see the contract. I’m
just a partner of Travellife who tried to
help them find accommodation to serve
their customers. You can see in my
documentation about this case.
Have you got any legal documents
to prove that your company did not
break the law? Which types of con-
tract have your company signed with
Travel Life?
No, I have only emails.
What are the biggest challenges in
solving the dispute with Travel Life?
And what are you expecting?
I want to get my money back. The
biggest challenge is exactly that – get-
ting back what is owed to my business.
Howmuch effect will the losses have?
And do you think your company’s im-
age will suffer?
Based on all expenses, it has re-
ally not affected the loyalty or income
from our long-term partners. They un-
derstand in my situation. In fact, I’m
the only man who has already paid
money for some accommodation to
serve the 700 customers, so my repu-
tation is intact.
Fighting back
Duc Hanh
talks with
Thanik
Khachonkittisakul
, manag-
ing director of Thai2020 Trav-
el, about the problems it has
faced since 700 Vietnamese
tourists were left stranded in
Bangkok in mid-June.
THE INSIDER
timeout
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