Check tour agency blacklist before booking: government

• By Tsai Yun-jung and Hollie Younger / Staff reporter, with staff writer

The Tourism Administration is advising travelers to check its blacklist of travel operators before making plans for the peak winter season and Lunar New Year.

The agency has posted on its Chinese-language Web site ( information showing which travel agency has had its license revoked, been banned from operating by the Taiwan Clearing House or voluntarily renounced their license.

The list shows that the Ministry of Transportation and Communications has revoked the licenses of the following 12 travel companies this year: Mega International Travel Service (美加國際旅行社), GTIC Travel Agency (有錢真好旅行社), HaplayTour (哈樂旅行社), Waytours (威翔旅行社), Hosanna Tours and Travels (和撒那旅行社), Beautiful Life Travel Service Co (麗群旅行社), Shun Li International (順麗國際旅行社), Hui Lan International Travel Agency (洄瀾國際旅行社), Istour Travel Service Co (東和旅行社), Victor Fly Travel Service Co (凱翔旅行社), The Grand Tour Travel Co (壯遊旅行社) and The Honey Kingdom Travel Agent (金漢妮旅行社).

Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times

The site also showed that Fly Tours Travel Agent (全球國際旅行社) and Xiang Zhan Travel Agency (翔展旅行社) were ordered to suspend operations this year.

Travelers should check the license of their travel agencies to ensure they are legally allowed to operate and be sure to sign a standardized contract, the Travel Administration said.

The agency’s Web site also showed that six travel agencies had their guarantee deposits confiscated or executed this year, including Tsai Hsing International Travel and Tours Co (再興國際旅行社), Crazymike Travel Co (瘋狂賣客旅行社), Shine Hai International Travel Agency (?海國際旅行社), TSTTour (旅見旅行社), My Favorite Travel Service Co (松愛國際旅行社) and Nepenthe International Travel Service Co (忘憂草國際旅行社).

Mega International Travel Service made the blacklist after an incident in February stranded more than 200 tourists on Vietnam’s Phu Quoc Island, it said.

In September, Grand Tour Travel Co failed to pay local ground operators, leaving tourists on their Croatia tour to pay more than NT$2 million (US$61,130) to continue the trip, it added.

Since the representative of Victor Fly Travel Service passed away, the company’s finances have not yet returned to usual operating standards, while Fly Tours Travel Agent and The Honey Kingdom Travel Agent have been banned from operating by the Taiwan Clearing House, it said.