Thirty-three Chinese tourists say they were abandoned in Pattaya by a Chinese tour guide who demanded extra money from them.
Pattaya tourist police went to Jomtien Beach road in Bang Lamung district of Chon Buri province after being told of the incident about 11.30pm on Thursday.
They found 33 Chinese tourists, 31 adults and two children, gathered forlornly on the roadside. They said they had checked out of their hotel and were waiting for their tour guide and transport, but she did not show up.
A 48-year-old Chinese tourist told police through an interpreter that her group had travelled to Thailand on Feb 16 after buying tour packages in China for 2,399 yuan, or 12,484 baht, each. They had been taken to Pattaya on Feb 18 and stayed at a hotel on Jomtien beach.
During their stay, the 20-year-old Chinese tour guide had demanded extra payment of 1,388 yuan (about 7,184 baht) from each of them. She and her friends refused as they had already paid for the tour packages, Thai media reported on Friday.
About 20 members of the tour party had paid the guide as they did not want to have problems with her. However, the guide then disappeared with the money, a total of 27,600 yuan (143,699 baht), leaving them all stranded, the tourist said.
Paisarn Suethanuwong, 40, secretary-general of the Chinese Tour Guides Club and interpreter for the tour group, said serious action should be taken against the guide for abandoning them. Such bad conduct ruined the image of tourism, he said.
Arfang sae Lu, a representative of New Gen Co, a tour company in Chiang Mai responsible for picking up the tour group, met police on Friday and took responsibility for what befell the group.
She said the company was not involved in guide’s action, but it was willing to refund the tourists the additional money they earlier paid the absconding guide. The firm had tried unsuccessfully to contact the guide, said Ms Arfang.
Pattaya tourist police chief Sukthat Pumpanmuang said police would look into whether the guide was licensed or not. Action would be taken against her if she was found to be unregistered.