mid-day editorial: Tourists don't pay to be taken for a ride

An otherwise perfect Europe tour was ruined for 36 passengers after they decided to go to a local mall in Rome in the last few hours of the trip. A report in this paper cited how the tourists from Mumbai and elsewhere in India ended up losing possessions running into lakhs of rupees after their bags were stolen from the tour bus.

The Indian tour operator has simply washed its hands off the entire episode, stating that the tour bus was parked outside the mall's parking area, and that the tour manager and the Italian driver of the bus had been robbed at knife-point. Yet there are questions that remain. The tour operator parked the bus outside the mall's parking lot, which was wrong. The tourists said that the mall stop was on the itinerary, and the tour manager decided to halt there as they were early for their flight back home. What's also suspicious is that the manager and driver allegedly did not inform the tourists about the theft immediately.

It is shocking that such a reputed tour manager shows scant respect for distressed tourists who have lost so much, forced to go home after a bitter experience, instead of the happy memories they had expected their holiday to give them. The tourists say that the manager did not even inform the local police, doing so only when the tourists urged them. If this was an armed robbery why were the police not informed? The tour operator though disputes the fact that a report was not filed. In this back and forth, however, one thing is evident - tour operators need to take much more responsibility when they have erred. We have seen so many tourists being swindled by operators, with their hyped claims, shoddy service, and zero responsibility once the tourists are on board. One hopes these tourists can go to consumer court and get some justice.