Solo travelers to get protection

The Tourism Bureau (觀光局) has ordered an association that seeks compensation for travelers when travel agencies go out of business before paid services have been provided to offer their services to individual travelers.

Previously only groups using travel agencies -- not individuals -- had a chance to have their cases negotiated should the agency close down without warning.

Now, anyone who commissions a travel agency for plane tickets, accommodation or package trips will qualify for insurance negotiation from the Travel Quality Association (旅行業品質保障協會).

The decision was prompted by a debate sparked when 286 clients of Taipei's Kungning Travel Agency (康寧旅行社) took a complaint to a negotiation session with the association last week.

The agency, a member of the association, suspended its operation due to financial difficulty in late March, causing the clients to be unable to go on their trips despite having paid fees to Kungning.

Because the agency was a member of the association, the association is obliged to negotiate for insurance for the agency's failure in fulfilling its contract with clients.

However, the association refused to negotiate compensation with insurance companies for the clients in question, on the basis that they paid for the agency's services in their own names and did not do so as groups.

The Tourism Bureau, upon learning of the situation, held an urgent meeting with the association on Saturday. The talks concluded that individual clients of travel agencies should also be protected.

"The purpose of establishing the mechanism of the association to request compensation for clients of travel agencies is to protect each consumer's rights when the agency fails to carry out their contracted service. The association had misinterpreted [their purpose] as being merely to serve clients seeking the services of the agency in a group," said Chen Lian-yuan (陳良源), chief of the bureau's travel agent section.

The association was established in 1995 with the help of the bureau. The bureau said individuals who have paid travel agencies for tickets and accommodations as well as arrangements for tour programs, will be included as qualified for the association's services regarding requesting insurance coverage in situations that the agency failing to fulfill the promised service cannot be reached for compensations.

The bureau has requested the association approve the measure in its upcoming internal meeting on Friday.

Chen said the number of people in Taiwan requesting travel agency services on an individual basis has been on the increase in recent years. He said Taiwanese tourists used to participate in tour programs in a group.