VietNamNet Bridge – The chief of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) – Mr. Nguyen Van Tuan – on April 25 met with Mrs. Ilona Schultz, an Australian visitor who had to pay VND1.3 million ($75) for a 5km trip on a cyclo. Tuan said sorry to the visitor and presented her a small gift to show the goodwill.

Australian tourist has to pay VND1.3 million for 5km on cyclo 

 

Tourism officials met with Mrs. Ilona Schultz.

 

Tuan and other VNAT officials expressed pity for the incident and the hope that the Australian visitor would come back to Vietnam in the near future.

Getting back VND1.3 million from the police of Hang Trong ward (where the cyclo driver dropped Schultz and her kids,) the Australian tourist sent back VND150,000 to the cyclo driver. She said that in any country, there are bad guys and good guys. This is just one minor incident that she ever met.

"You have a very quick response. I am very happy and thank you! Definitely I will come back to Hanoi in July," she said, adding that she would tell the story of the rapid response of the tourism agencies of Vietnam on her Facebook, to let’s her friends know about Vietnam and to visit the country.

Mr. Mai Tien Dung, deputy director of the Hanoi Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, told an online newswire that although he was very busy with a meeting far from Hanoi, he hurriedly returned to the city to see Mrs. Ilona Schultz before she left Vietnam.

The Hanoi tourism department presented her a small gift to show the goodwill and made apology for the incident. The department also arranged a car to take Schultz and her kids to the airport.

The police have confiscated the cyclo of driver Pham Van Chieu because this man worked without a licence. He was also fined.

 

Mrs. Ilona Schultz and her children.

 

Dung confirmed that the department will cooperate with the local authorities to enhance monitoring and management over the operation of tourism service providers in order to prevent similar cases.

The department has proposed to the VNAT to establish a hotline to receive comments of domestic and foreign tourists. Based on that, the tourism sector will have measures to improve tourism service quality.

At noon on April 23, Ilona Schultz and her two children paid a visit to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. At around 11 am, she made a deal with a cyclo driver for the trip from the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum to the Thang Long Water Puppetry Theatre on Dinh Tien Hoang Road, at the price of VND70,000 ($3.5). However, driver Pham Van Chieu dropped them on Hang Trong Street and asked her to pay up to VND1.3 million.

Mai Sa