The Tourism Administration yesterday said it is investigating a private driver working for an unlicensed travel operator whose behavior allegedly left an elderly Malaysian traveler feeling “deeply distressed.”
The 62-year-old woman from Penang visited last month with a group of four other elderly people, she said in a post on the online forum Baoliao Commune (爆料公社) on March 17.
The Facebook post has since amassed more than 6,300 likes.
Photo courtesy of the New Taipei City Tourism and Travel Department
She said she had visited Taiwan eight times since 2007 and often recommended it to friends for its warm hospitality and scenery.
The group booked a private driver package through a company named “Taiwan Travel,” she said.
The Tourism Administration said that the travel company is not on the government’s list of licensed tourism operators.
As the operator’s Facebook page has since been shut down, the authorities have requested more information from the tourist concerned, the agency said.
If more evidence is provided, the agency said it would continue to investigate the complaint.
The tourist reported that the driver told them to “speak a human language” when they were conversing in Cantonese.
On a separate occasion, the driver referred to her as “that depressed one,” which she said was particularly offensive, having had clinical depression for four years.
Moreover, when they asked to turn up the air-conditioning on a humid day in Nantou County, the driver said: “My car has air-conditioning, not refrigeration. Refrigerated trucks are for carrying fish, shrimp or corpses,” the tourist said.
The driver also asked the group to walk down a long, slippery staircase in Jiufen (九份) in the rain, even though two of the women used walking sticks and the group required wheelchair assistance at the airport, she said.
Although the trip ended in tears and “broke her heart,” she said she still believes Taiwan is full of kind, helpful and polite people.
Unlicensed travel operators may be liable to fines ranging from NT$100,000 to NT$2 million (US$3,149 to US$62,977) under the Act for the Development of Tourism (發展觀光條例), the agency said.
Under the Civil Code, travel operators must provide “itinerary planning” to qualify as a travel agency business, it said.
Many private car tours often push customized itineraries for the passengers to choose the destinations, evading this rule, it said.
Whether this contravenes the law must be determined on a case-by-case basis, it added.
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