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On January 30th the BANKO Information Service received a phone call from The
East Express Travel Agency, which sent two tourists for a week tour to Goa
through The Bosht Travel Company three days earlier.
The reason for the phone call was an accommodation problem. According to
Express Director Armen Kazaryan, the tourists had wanted to stay in The
Majorda Beach Resort 5* Hotel. Bosht confirmed the booking, giving
assurances that it had guaranteed quotas from the hotel.
However, a day before the trip they suggested a change to some unknown
hotel. ‘I was surprised as I had a written confirmation from the tour
operating company - and so I could not accept the suggested alternative. As
a result our tourists were accommodated in The Hyatt Hotel, but the next day
they had to move to Clarion the Beach – a new hotel, not properly equipped,
and full of young Indian people. When our clients, two 50 year old women,
naturally did not want to stay there - they were moved to The
Intercontinental, but they were asked to pay extra money’, explained
Kazaryan.
A top-manager of an Indian in-country company Far Pavilions – a partner of
Bosht – who presented himself as Elvis, confirmed that the tourists ought to
pay approximately $400 as accommodation in The Intercontinental is more
expensive.
‘Initially the problem arose due to the fact that there is no contract
between our company and Majorda Beach. But anyway they are fully booked at
the moment. Therefore as soon as I received a request for booking from Bosht
I had to reject the request in a written form’, commented a representative
of Far Pavilions.
Meanwhile, there was nobody in the office of the Russian tour operator to
make comments on the situation. ‘At high season in Goa there are many
accommodation problems, especially in 5* hotels. At the moment many hotels
are full until February 8th. The peculiarity of the country is that if a
travel company wants to have rooms during the season, it is necessary to pay
2000$ per room. Besides it is not a guaranteed quota, but allotments’,
outlined Ksenia Ogienko, Tourism Director of UTE Megapolus Group.
