Beware of fake travel agency websites

WHETHER you are planning a holiday with your family or with your friends or an exciting women-only trip, the choices are unlimited today. You can choose a beach resort or opt for a jungle safari or go paragliding, hot-air ballooning, skydiving, rafting or scuba diving.

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Of course, to execute these plans, you may need the help of a professional organiser and that’s where you have to be extremely cautious in your choice of the tourism-service provider. Only last month, the Delhi Police arrested a woman on charges of running a fake online travel agency along with her husband, who was operating from Kolkata. How cleverly the couple was hoodwinking consumers can be gauged from the fact that the victim was a lawyer.

According to the police, the complainant, a travel enthusiast, got in touch with the travel agency after seeing its profile on Facebook. After she finalised a package, she was asked to pay Rs 38,000, which she transferred into a bank account and was issued fake air tickets and an itinerary for the trip. Later, she was told that the trip was cancelled on account of the rising number of Covid cases. When she tried to contact the travel agency, she found the numbers switched off. Last year, too, the Delhi Police had nabbed another couple on charges of running a fake tour and travel agency.

Anyone can put up a website with attractive pictures of tourist destinations, claiming to offer tour packages. The social media platforms help them in reaching out to more people. In fact, I checked up several travel agencies’ websites it was obvious that some of them were fake. One of them, for example, said it was established in 2020, but claimed that it was ‘the world’s largest and the most experienced travel company’. Despite an extensive search, I could not find the name of the owner or the partners running the company. Nor did it have a landline number. These are some of the tell-tale signs that one should look for while choosing an agency, because today such frauds are on the rise.

It’s for this reason that the Union Ministry of Tourism (travel trade division) gives its seal of approval to tourism operators in the country. I would advise consumers to approach the agencies recognised by the ministry. Of course, the scheme of recognition is voluntary and only a small percentage of the businesses has opted for it, but consumer preference can well encourage more of them to seek such approval.

As per the revised guidelines for recognition of tourism-service providers issued by the Ministry of Tourism in 2020, effective from January 1, 2021, the service providers fall into three groups: tour operators, travel agents and tourist transport operators. Depending on the number of years in the business, they are categorised as ‘start-ups or green shoots’ and ‘experienced tourism service providers’.

The recognition, given after inspection and scrutiny, is valid for three years in respect of the first group and five years in respect of the second group. There are additional requirements for various kinds of adventure tourism, including specialised qualifications, keeping in mind the safety aspect. The recognition can be terminated or revoked for violations of service standards, besides complaints of a serious nature related to deficiency in service or any irregularity, or for submitting false documents.

So, if you go to etraveltradeapproval.nic.in, you will get the list of approved travel agents, tourist transport operators and tour operators for every state and Union Territory. Here, the tour operators are further classified into adventure tour operators, domestic tour operators and inbound tour operators. The list gives you the name of the organisation, its physical and online address, the name and contact details of the nodal officer, the approval or recognition number, the date of approval and expiry.

As of June 8, 2023, only 1,305 travel trade operators in the country have been recognised and many in the travel industry feel that this should be made mandatory to weed out fake and fraudulent operators. As I said earlier, consumer choices can certainly prompt more operators to opt for recognition. The ministry, on its part, should give more prominence to consumer complaints of deficient and negligent services as well as unfair trade practices against recognised service providers in its scheme of recognition and revocation. It should also make a provision for consumer complaints on its portal.

The writer is a consumer affairs expert