Travel agencies: 1000% increase in inquiries and complaints

The Argentine Forum of Business Travel Consultants (Facve), a non-profit organization that concentrates 50 percent of ticket sales in the tourism industry in Argentina, expressed its “deep concern at the delicate situation that the sector is going through” due to the “economic havoc” caused by the Coronavirus pandemic.

Facve pointed out that the closure of borders caused cancellations and rescheduling of flights and accommodation, increasing customer inquiries and complaints by travel agencies and operators by nearly 1,000 percent.

“This means that, on average, agencies receive a query every 10 seconds,” the entity said in a statement.

In order to respond to this situation, the companies diagrammed extended service hours (24×7) and assigned all sales and commercial personnel to customer service centers; reported. “Still, it is not enough.”

“Each case, which has different conditions and return policies depending on the service provider-provider, evaluates options such as total penalties, postponement of services and partial refunds, which forced large, medium and small companies throughout the country to design an unprecedented administrative-accounting plan, taking them to the limit of their financial capabilities ”, Facve listed.

Orders

Although the entity highlighted the good open dialogue with the Ministry of Tourism and Sports of the Nation, it clarified that the official measures announced so far are not sufficient given the magnitude of the crisis.

Here are some of the requests that the entity submitted:

• Create a dialogue table and action plan, operational and economic, that allows to continue with the normal operation of activities, protecting work sources.
• Definition of a unique and clear travel rescheduling policy that identifies the roles of each member of the tourism product marketing chain.
• Propose a uniform policy of reimbursements through the granting of favorable balances, so that the consumer can make his trip once the health emergency is over.
• Elimination of the sector as a taxable person of withholdings and perceptions in the different taxes
• Reduction of the working day