A group of 700 Vietnamese tourists were left to fend for themselves in Bangkok after a Vietnamese travel agent failed to pay its Thai partner for their transport and hotels.
The tourists had paid the company to organise their visit to Thailand from June 12-18 for a two-day Herbalife seminar followed by a tour of Bangkok.
They purchased the package from Travel Life, a firm in Ho Chi Minh City. But Travel Life failed to pass on the tourists' money to its counterpart in Bangkok, Thai 2020.
Travel Life paid the Thai company for 30 per cent of the cost of the tours, and promised to come up with the rest of the cash when the tourists arrived in Thailand, but failed to do so, Vietnam News reported on Wednesday.
"It was the worst tour I have ever taken in my life," one of the tourists told the paper. "We had problems right from our arrival in Bangkok. We had to wait for hours at midnight for the hotel pick-up.
"Nearly 80 people were put in a 45-seat bus. The hotel did not have sufficient rooms, so we were forced to stay three and four people to a room. We were abandoned and had to pay for everything ourselves in Thailand."
Thai 2020 said it lacked the funds to provide services to the 700-strong group, without the full payment from Travel Life.
The stranded tourists had paid Travel Life 6.4-8 million dong (9,400-11,600 baht) for the trip. But other travel agents warned that the price they paid was unrealistically low, because a six-day, five-night tour to Thailand normally costs more than 9 million dong.
Nguyen Thi Kim Khanh, head of Travel Life, flew to Bangkok to resolve the problem and admitted that the company failed to pay its Thai partner. He has now been summoned to the Culture, Sports and Tourism Department of Vietnam.
Travel Life was established two years ago in Ho Chi Minh, but, according to the Vietnamese government department, does not have a licence for outbound tours.