Police in Thailand have found a Vietnamese company organising an illegal tour to the country and detained the tour guide and the leader of the tour.

EPAC Education Application JC Company in the Mekong city of Can Tho which specialises in holding educational tours to Thailand took a group of 17 people to Thailand on June 15-19. The package fees for each person are VND6.5 million (USD295.4).

However, when arriving in Thailand, the group had to find their accommodation and transport services by themselves, instead of being arranged by the company as agreed before. Meanwhile, the tour guide couldn’t speak English, so some members of the group had to help him.

On June 18, Thai police detained the tour guide Ngo Thanh Den and the leader of the tour Duong Hoai Han, claiming the tour was not officially recognised. As a result, the tourists were left in Thailand and they had to cover fees for all services during the time in the country until local police helped them to come back Vietnam.

Speaking with reporters, Tran Xuan Vinh, Chairman of the company, said that their Thai partners cancelled contracts with the company so they had failed to arrange the service for the tourists. After that, Den and Han decided to hire vehicles and other services for the tour but were stopped by Thai authorities.

The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism urged Can Tho authorities to inspect EPAC Education Application JS Company to protect the interests of the tourists.

Le Minh Son, deputy director of Can Tho City’s Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said EPAC does not have any licence for outbound tours, but still organised the tour to Thailand. Its tour guide does not have a card for international tours.

The firm admitted to its violation which would be fined up to VND50 million (USD2,272). The company has been also requested to provide compensation for the tourists by August 10.

dtinews