COMPLAINTS AGAINST TRAVEL AGENTS

Mr Yeo Choo Kok asked the Minister for Trade and Industry (a) how many licensed travel agents there are to date; (b) how many complaints have been made by local tourists to the Singapore Tourist Promotion Board against travel agents for not adhering to agreed programmes and services abroad since 1st January, 1987; (c) what action has been taken against these agents; and (d) whether the STPB has any plan to train more tourist guides.

BG Lee Hsien Loong: Mr Speaker, Sir, there are 392 licensed travel agents as at 12th March this year.

Between 1st January 1987 and 12th March this year, STPB has received 44 complaints from local tourists concerning overseas tours that were not conducted in accordance with agreed terms and conditions.

All the 44 complaints received were investigated by the STPB. Investigations on 35 of the complaints have been completed. Of these, 27 were established to be valid. Generally, the problems were due to lapses in coordination between the local and overseas tour operators. For all the 27 cases, the local travel agents concerned were made to refund or pay compensation to the complainants. In addition, the travel agents were warned to ensure that their overseas ground operators adhere to the terms and conditions of the tour as contracted, and to give proper pre-tour briefings to their clients.

So far, no travel agent has been prosecuted by STPB for such complaints. The problem is not a serious one because more than 4 million overseas trips were made by Singaporeans and permanent residents in 1987, many of whom had probably gone on organized tours, and there were only 44 complaints. Nevertheless, STPB is closely monitoring the situation and local tour operators will be constantly reminded to work more closely with their overseas tour operators to minimize such incidents.

To date, STPB has conducted 22 Basic Tourist Guide courses. Currently, there are 544 licensed tourist guides in Singapore and they are conversant in one or more of 16 languages. STPB plans to train about 60-80 guides each year.