Nineteen Taiwanese tourists were awarded compensation by the Taipei District Court for suffering from what they described as a "death tour" to South Africa two years ago.
The nineteen plaintiffs, mostly elderly, blasted the Travel Land Express Co Ltd (
They claimed the itinerary differed significantly from that which the travel agency had promised, saying that changes to the schedule both disappointed and exhausted them -- and that they had expected a relaxing tour of the South African wilderness.
Even worse, they claimed, some elderly members of the party had to seek medical treatment upon their return to Taiwan as they had been exhausted by the tour.
"It was the most horrific experience in my life. I had never before felt that my life was in such danger," said one of the tourists, who is a lawyer.
The tour in dispute was an NT$80,000 package booked with Travel Land Express and with flights provided by Singapore Airlines.
The plaintiffs said a lot of places on the 15-day itinerary were skipped and they had to spend most of the time on a bus. Starting off at 6am on the ninth day of the tour, the tourists said they spent more than 19 hours in transit and did not arrive at a hotel until midnight.
Moreover, they said the schedule promised in the advertisement for the tour did not fit in with the real itinerary at all. For instance, the ad had boasted that they would be able to see lions up close in the Kruger National Park.
However, the tourists said they did not see any animals at all but saw plenty of people and cars on the wide straight roads in the national park, which is bigger than Taiwan.
The plaintiffs had requested compensation from both the travel agency and Singapore Airlines. But the district court determined that only the travel agency was responsible, as the disputes at issue were for services rendered on land, not in the air.
The court decided the travel agency did not provide the full service they had agreed to when the plaintiffs booked the tour and ordered the agency to pay NT$27,000 to each of the plaintiffs in compensation.
The owner of the travel agency said yesterday that he planned to appeal.
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