billion fraud in travel tours; How do travelers get caught in illegal offices?

According to Ilana; Illegal tourism offices are emptying the pockets of customers by advertising cheap trips on virtual networks and online platforms, and in this way, they demand more money for the trip by baiting the sales market with a price after signing a contract with the customer, and the customers, who have visas, are forced to pay more money to get tickets, hotel reservations, and travel services.

Harmatullah Rafiei, the head of the Trade Union of Travel Service Agencies of Iran, told ILNA about the new method of defrauding travelers by some travel agencies:

Unfortunately, since the beginning of the nineties, we encountered a new phenomenon in which a small number of offices and travel agencies were selling tours at an unrealistic price (lower than the market rate). These offices are generally unauthorized and some are licensed.

The head of Iran Air Travel and Tourism Services Association said:

Unfortunately, by abusing the contract of foreign tours of the General Directorate of Tourism, “for any involuntary increase in the price, whether it is an increase in the price of tickets or other services, by presenting a document from the broker with the approval of the organization, the tourist is obliged to pay the difference.” Or “If the hotel is not available, a similar hotel will be replaced.” They increase the amount of the contract in an unconventional way, and in case of a cancellation request from the passenger under the pretext of the flight being a charter, etc., they charge the entire advance payment amount as a penalty. Unfortunately, this type of sale has gradually been promoted among the offices due to the significant profit it has for companies, which has caused damage to the dignity of the tourism industry and people’s lack of trust in travel service offices.

Rafiei demanded from the regulatory officials of the tourism sector to deal more with the violations of unauthorized offices and the violations of a number of tourism offices, he explained:

Violations in the field of tourism include licensed companies, expired companies, bloggers and card-carrying guides. So that some licensed offices rent counters, sell headers for tour implementation, sell tours and increase tour rates after entering into a contract. This is while some companies whose licenses have expired or have been revoked continue to operate. Also, people who sell and conduct tours without a license and attract passengers by promoting disorderly conduct and mixed parties in cyber space.

Rafii added:

My plea to the officials of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Tourism is to investigate the violations and illegal activities committed by some offices as soon as possible, because these violations cause the loss of public trust, increase of public complaints, damage to the brand of the tourist destination, decrease of tourists, loss of trust and damage to the credibility of healthy and legal agencies.

“Parham Janfshan”, the advisor to the Minister of Cultural Heritage and Director General of Tourism Services Monitoring and Evaluation regarding the ongoing violations in some offending travel agencies, announced:

With the efforts of the trade association of travel service offices of Iran, meetings are being held with the presence of judicial and executive authorities and trustee bodies so that we can solve some of the problems related to the violations of these offices in the country. Right now, in cooperation with the trade association of travel service offices of Iran, we are dealing with the violations of licensed and illegal tourist offices and unlicensed agencies.

Director General of the Office of Monitoring and Evaluation of Tourism Services emphasized:

We hope that by handing over the powers and responsibilities to the professional community of tourism travel service companies, the issue of dealing with the offending travel agencies will be handed over to the private sector.

According to Parham Janfashan, the cultural activities that have taken place have a great effect in preventing violations so that people do not fall into the trap of fraudsters, and in the meetings held in this regard, strategies were presented, one of which is to deal with the offices of violators who have been condemned by the complaints commission.