Unhappy Ahmedabad tourists force operator to pay back

Hoping to have a blast during their Diwali vacations, 45 residents of the city booked a tour package with an agent. Little did they know that it would end up as a nightmare for them! After spending five terrible days in Rajasthan, the 45 tourists stormed into the office of their tour operator upon returning to the city, and held him hostage on Thursday.

The high drama continued for over an hour, as people alleged the travel agency's owner of cheating them. According to them, they were promised excellent services during their five-day long tour of Rajasthan, like good hotel stay with all the facilities including lunch and dinner. However, the tourists alleged that right from the first day, the tour manager had forced them to stay in shabby hotels, which were worse than a dharamshala.

According to one such tourist Vijay Sitapara, there was no water in the bathrooms and the women traveling with them had to cook food in the kitchen of one such hotel for everyone.

"We paid Rs20,000 for a couple ticket for the tour, which included places like Bikaner, Jaisalmer and Chittorgarh. We have suffered a lot during our tour, as nothing written in their brochure was actually offered during the tour," said Sitapara. 

The bus carrying the 45 tourists had left from Paldi and returned on Thursday. After reaching city, the irate tourists stormed the office of the tour operator, located in the cellar of Shefali Towers near Paldi crossroads. They cornered the tour operator and asked him to pay back their money.

"We demanded of him to pay back a total of Rs2.4 lakh that he had collected from all of us, but after negotiations, the tour operator returned Rs1 lakh. Thus we all received Rs5,000 to Rs10,000 per couple," said Sitapara.