Illegal travel operations boom
| 12:52' 16/06/2007 (GMT+7) | ||
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Actually, local travel agents have to sit idle while watching Korean visitors come to Vietnam through illegal travel agents.
At HCM City-based Tan Son Nhat Airport, one can see a group of Korean people always present at the international terminal. At first look, one might think that they come to the airport to welcome their relatives and friends. However, a taxi driver at the airport said that they were tour guides.
“I see them almost everyday at this airport. They come here to pick up groups of Korean visitors,” the driver said.
At a conference seeking measures to attract foreign tourists to Vietnam held by the VNAT in late April 2007, the representative of the Ministry of Public Security’s Immigration Management Agency confirmed that there were more than 100 illegal Korean tour guides operating at Tan Son Nhat Airport.
According to Vietnam’s Tourism Law, foreign tour guides are not allowed to work in Vietnam. VNAT inspectors said that there were three forms of illegal tourism in Vietnam. The first is travel companies that are allowed to offer local tourism services but still sell outbound tours to tourists. The second is tour guides seeking travellers themselves and the third is operating in the name of foreign companies.
The current fine imposed on illegal travel operations is only VND10 million (US$620), which is too modest, according to Pham Huynh Loc, chief tourism inspector.
The tourism inspection agency now has around 40 employees while Vietnam has up to 556 companies offering international travel services and over 5,000 others providing local travel services.
Reporters engaged in conversation a group of Korean visitors who were visiting Tax Shopping Mall on Nguyen Hue Road, District 1, HCM City. A tourist named Cho pointed to a Korean man who was speaking to the group of Korean visitors and said: “He is our tour guide. We buy the tour to Vietnam through a travel office in Seoul. This tour guide picked us up at the Tan Son Nhat Airport. That’s good because we are fellow-countrymen. He has lived in Vietnam for a long time so he knows everything about this country.”
Most illegal Korean tour guides in Vietnam are sent to Vietnam by Korean travel companies. Some of them are students or those who are working in Vietnam.
In Vietnam, there are only two licenced travel joint ventures with Korean partners, the VTA Co, Ltd. and VTB Co., Ltd.
Nguyen Duc Hanh, Deputy Director of the VTA Co, Ltd said that licenced companies couldn’t compete with illegal ones. “They have available sources of tourists while they dodge taxes so they can offer cheaper tours,” he said.
In addition, local travel companies lack tour guides who can speak the Korean language, he added.
Mr Hanh revealed that his company welcomed around 3,000 to 4,000 foreign visitors. As it lacks tour guides speaking Korean, the firm has to recruit Korean people who are living in Vietnam as tour guides. Those people are trained with tourism knowledge before working as tour guides.
“Illegal tourism operations are alarming now. Close cooperation among local governments, police, and the tourism inspection agency is needed to prevent it,” said chief tourism inspector Pham Huynh Cong.
(Source: TN) |
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