Before the tour begins, if a tourist is unable to join the tour for some reason, can he request a refund of the tour fee?

On September 9, 2018, Xiaoqiang signed up on behalf of his parents Yongqiang and Liu Ying to participate in the 5-6 day sailing and food tour in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates organized by Travel Agency A, and signed the " "Outbound Travel Registration Form", "Guangzhou Outbound Travel Group Contract", "Itinerary", and paid the 9,398 yuan tour group fee for the parents.

On October 7, Liu Ying suddenly fell ill and it was clear that she could not go on the tour. Xiaoqiang communicated with Travel Agency A on how to continue to perform the contract, but the two parties never reached an agreement. Travel agency A asked Xiaoqiang twice for Yongqiang’s passport information on October 19 and 20, but Xiaoqiang failed to provide it. On October 22, Travel Agency A informed Xiaoqiang that the ticket would be issued the next morning, and clearly informed Xiaoqiang that failure to hand over his passport would be considered as giving up his participation in the group.

On October 23, Xiaoqiang sent his passport information to travel agency A, and told the travel agency to replace his mother Liu Ying with himself to participate in the tour, and the information of another participant will be provided later. Travel agency A informed Xiaoqiang that the contract to withdraw from the group would have to be re-signed. If not re-signed, the new contract would be inoperable, but Xiaoqiang refused to sign it.

On the same day, Travel Agency A deemed Xiaoqiang to have terminated the contract on the grounds that Yongqiang did not agree to sign the "Tourist Cancellation Confirmation" signed by his mother Liu Ying and that he had not yet provided his father Yongqiang's passport information. The "Guangzhou Outbound Tourism Group Contract" stipulates that after deducting 2,000 yuan per person, 5,398 yuan will be returned to Xiaoqiang.

Xiaoqiang believes that the "Guangzhou Outbound Tour Group Contract" stipulates: "Before the start of the tour, unless Party B has legitimate reasons to refuse, Party A may transfer its rights and obligations under this contract to a third party. "According to this, we can transfer without signing a group cancellation agreement. After we informed travel agency A that my mother Liu Ying could not travel, travel agency A asked us to sign a group withdrawal agreement and deduct 40% of the group fee, which is against the rules of tourism. regulations. Therefore, Xiaoqiang filed a lawsuit in court, requiring travel agency A to compensate Xiaoqiang for 2,318 yuan in time losses and mental losses incurred during this period, and to refund the remaining 4,000 yuan in corresponding travel group fees.

After the trial, the court held that Yongqiang’s failure to join the tour was due to Xiaoqiang’s breach of contract obligations. Therefore, Xiaoqiang should bear the liability for breach of contract for this part of the contract and compensate Travel Agency A for the corresponding losses.

Regarding Liu Ying’s failure to join the tour, it was because Liu Ying was not suitable to travel due to health reasons. Xiaoqiang replaced herself with her mother to join the tour. Travel agency A did not raise any objection, but asked Xiaoqiang to sign the "Tourist Cancellation Confirmation". Letter", the confirmation letter becomes effective and the contract between both parties is terminated. Travel agency A treated Xiaoqiang’s request to change people to join the tour as a cancellation, which violated the agreement that the rights and obligations in the contract can be transferred before the start of the travel itinerary. If a dispute arises as a result, travel agency A unilaterally terminates the contract and should bear the main responsibility. Xiaoqiang submitted his passport information close to the deadline notified by travel agency A. There was a delay and he bears secondary responsibility.

Therefore, the court determined that travel agency A was 75% responsible for the 2,000 yuan loss caused by Liu Ying’s failure to travel, while Xiaoqiang was fully responsible for the loss caused by Yongqiang’s failure to travel. It ruled that travel agency A should refund 1,500 yuan to Xiaoqiang.

(The characters in the article are pseudonyms)

Lawyers remind: Article 64 of my country's "Tourism Law" stipulates: Before the start of the tour, tourists can transfer their own rights and interests in the package tour contract. The transfer of rights and obligations to a third party shall not be refused by the travel agency without justifiable reasons. Therefore, the increased costs shall be borne by the tourists and the third party.

In other words, tourists who sign up for a group tour only get a quota for group participation. This quota is transferable and does not have a strong personal attachment. If tourists are unable to go due to their own reasons before departure, they can transfer the group tour quota to them, and the tour operator shall not refuse without legitimate reasons, and tourists can also reduce their losses. However, if the tourist notifies the tour operator that he or she wants to change the tour group members just before departure, the tour operator may have already purchased the bus tickets or air tickets at this time, which may cause additional expenses or losses to the tour operator, and the tourist and The replaced participants need to bear the responsibility.

There is another question. Many group tourists may have questions, that is, is it legal for a travel agency to entrust other companies to be responsible for the reception? If it is specified in the tourism service contract that the ground agency is responsible for specific reception tasks, or the tourist's consent is obtained in advance, the entrustment by the travel agency is legal. For example, travel agency A is located in Beijing, and a tourist wants to visit Chengdu. After travel agency A signs a package tour contract with the tourist, it stipulates in the contract that Chengdu local travel agency B is responsible for receiving the travel. This agreement is valid. However, based on the relativity of the contract, if a dispute arises due to the performance of the contract, tourists should hold Travel Agency A responsible for breach of contract, not Travel Agency B.

You can understand what I am saying.

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