Oct 18 (Japan Times) - The Japan Tourism Agency will tighten regulations for travel agencies to protect tourists in the wake of Tellmeclub's bankruptcy in March.
The failure of the Tokyo-based discount travel agency was "extremely unusual" in the huge losses incurred by customers, a panel of experts said in a report in September after analyzing the case.
The bankruptcy involved some 36,000 defaulted travel contracts valued at ¥9.9 billion, both all-time highs in the history of the travel industry, according to the panel, which was set up to discuss measures to prevent similar large-scale disasters for tourists.
Most of the ¥9.9 billion paid by customers is unlikely to be refunded.
Tellmeclub has joined the bankruptcy insurance fund of the travel industry, which reimburses customers for up to five times the contributions made by member agencies in line with their revenue. The fund will pay no more than ¥120 million to affected customers on behalf of Tellmeclub.
After 53 tour companies went belly up over the past 11 years, 85 percent of payments by customers were refunded on average, according to the Japan Association of Travel Agents. Tellmeclub is an unusual case also in the low refund rate, which ended up at a little more than 1 percent.
