Make PattayaMail.com your Homepage | Bookmark              SERVING THE EASTERN SEABOARD OF THAILAND             Pattaya Blatt | Chiang Mai Mail | Pattaya Mail TV
 
Pattaya Mail Web
 
NEWS
 

Stranded Russians returning home after tour operator’s bankruptcy

Russian government threatens to halt dealings with ‘greedy’ Thai hotels, agents

Officials meet with some of the stranded Russian tourists in a town hall style meeting at the Ambassador City Jomtien hotel.

Theerarak Suthathiwong

About 350 Russian tourists stranded in Pattaya when their Moscow-based tour operator went bankrupt have begun returning home amid a threat from the Russian government to stop dealing with “greedy” Thai hotels that exploited victims.

The Jan. 27 bankruptcy of Russia’s oldest and largest tour operator, Lanta-Tour Voyage, left 341 Pattaya holidaymakers with unpaid hotel rooms and return tickets. Regional and tourist police along with the Tourism Authority of Thailand quickly mobilized to find new accommodations and flights home, which began last week.

The crisis began after Lanta-Tour announced on its website it was suspending operations due to an “inability to adequately provide funding of the ordered services.” About 2,700 of its customers around the world were abandoned, their hotel bills unpaid and their return tickets canceled. Russia’s Investigative Committee has launched a fraud probe into executives of Lanta-Tour Voyage, which annually serves about 100,000 tourists.

In Pattaya, the company’s local managing director, Olga Shendrik, surrendered to Banglamung Police Jan. 31 and was arrested for allegedly working without a work permit and defrauding Russian tourists booked at the In Town and Ambassador City hotels.

Region 2 Police Commander Lt. Gen. Punya Maamen met with 160 of the stranded Russians in a “town hall” style meeting at the Ambassador, assuring them  that police, the Tourism Authority of Thailand, Russian embassy and even the office of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin were working to bring them home.

On orders from Putin’s office, Russian state development bank VTB said it would lend Lanta-Tour the equivalent of $7 million at a 12 percent interest rate to settle hotel bills and repatriate overseas travelers. Foreign media reported that Eastern European agents that contracted with Lanta-Tour also promised to reimburse travelers once they returned home.

At the same time, however, Putin’s government lashed out at hotels and tour operators in Thailand and elsewhere for allegedly exploiting the situation.

The state-run TASS new agency on Feb. 4 said, “Major Russian tour operators will no longer deal with hotels and companies in Thailand, Vietnam and India who were extorting money from the clients of the financially troubled Lanta Tour Voyage firm.”

No further details were provided, but for Pattaya, which has seen the majority of its growth in recent years come from the Russian market, the boycott pledge was exactly what local officials were trying to prevent.

In Town Hotel executives said Feb. 2 they would swallow the loss from Lanta-Tour’s non-payment and not charge victims of the shutdown for their rooms as well as allow them to stay at the hotel free until return flights could be booked. The hotel’s general manager said Lanta-Tour had paid about 100,000 baht for each of the approximately 100 Russians staying at the resort, but that did not cover the full bill.

Total losses to Pattaya-area hotels and businesses are estimated at 10 million baht and Punya’s search of the company’s local branch office at Wonderland Village house off Sukhumvit Road turned up no evidence that money can be recouped.

Punya, along with top Chonburi Police commanders, visited the house Jan. 30, and found only owner Daoloi Khwamaak, 52. She said Shendrik had signed a five-year lease and, until now, had never missed a payment. A search found only a few stacks of papers and evidence that the firm employed 14 Thai staffers to run the operation, none of whom have received their last paychecks.

As for the stranded Russians themselves, one said he was obviously upset about Lanta-Tour’s bankruptcy and that the crisis initially sapped his group of any interest in continuing tourist activities. However, he said, once authorities began addressing the problem, their enthusiasm returned and his group planned to return to Pattaya again later.

In all, about 4,000 travelers are estimated to have been affected by Lanta-Tour Voyage’s bankruptcy, 1,300 of which were in Moscow waiting for flights. The company had sold 3,000 tours in the past year and a Belarus agent working with Lanta-Tour was quoted in newspapers claiming the company simply crumbled under the weight of its own expansion plans.

Vladimir Makovski, head of tour operators Vneshinturist, claimed Lanta-Tour attempted to work in too many exotic destinations, including Thailand, India, the Dominican Republic, Vietnam and China.

“In such cases,” he told Telegraph.by, “the operator has too many obligations and too many rooms on the guarantees in the hotels. This implies inevitably huge costs the company can’t cope with at some point.”


HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]

Return of flooding catches city hall off guard … again

Asia-Pacific region’s largest multinational exercise begins in Thailand

Pattaya, Qingdao ink tourism-cooperation agreement

Underage girls, migrants found during go-go raid

Ban Chang man arrested for rape of construction worker in tapioca field

Drunk woman takes German’s boat for joyride

Russian left almost naked by beach thief

Waitress kills bartender at Walking Street go-go bar

Cambodian woman, 3 kids rescued from abusive husband

Stranded Russians returning home after tour operator’s bankruptcy

611 engage in Navy shooting practice

Austrian embassy’s soi renamed after Mozart to mark 100th anniversary

Pattaya-area students learn robot building with eye toward international competition

Sattahip officials bring aid to boy recovering from hydrocephalus surgery

‘Robo Doctor’ will see you now
 

Advertisement

  Property for Rent
  Condos & Apartments
  Bungalows - Houses - Villas

  Property for Sele
  Condos & Apartments
  Bungalows - Houses - Villas
  Articles for Sale/Rent
  Boats
  Business Opportunities
  Computers & Communications
  Pets
  Services Provided
  Staff Wanted
  Vehicles for Sale / Rent: Trucks & Cars
 

 



News
 Local News
  Features
  Business
  Travel & Tourism
  Our Community
  Our Children
  Sports
Blogs
 Auto Mania
  Dining Out
  Book Review
  Daily Horoscope
Archives
PM Mike Franklin
Classic Charity Golf
Tournament
PM Peter Cummins
Classic International
Regetta
Information
Current Movies
in Pattaya's Cinemas

 Sophon TV-Guide
 Clubs in Pattaya
News Access
Subscribe to Newspaper
About Us
Shopping
Skal
Had Yao News
Partners
Pattaya Mail TV
 Pattaya Blatt
 Chiang Mail Mail

E-mail: [email protected]
Pattaya Mail Publishing Co.Ltd.
370/7-8 Pattaya Second Road, Pattaya City, Chonburi 20150 Thailand 
Tel.66-38 411 240-1, 413 240-1, Fax:66-38 427 596
Copyright © 2004 Pattaya Mail. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.