«Complete Uncertainty». What will happen to tourists who planned a vacation in the UAE in March?

Illustrative photo. Photo: "Nasha Niva"

Aksana, a reader of "Onliner," found herself in a situation of complete uncertainty. The girl was going to fly to Dubai with her family on March 10. For several days, she failed to get an answer on whether she could get a full refund for the tour if she decided to cancel the trip.

«Flights for the next 7-10 days, of course, no one is canceling. Tour operators, citing this, are keeping our tours active, — the girl wrote to the editorial office yesterday, March 2. — As a result, we are faced with a choice: either fly at risk for our vacation (because beaches and pools are closed, and going out into the city is at the tourists' own risk), or voluntarily cancel the tour with a loss of funds.»

Later, information appeared on the website of the tour operator "Kompas" (through which Aksana booked her tour) that applications for departures until March 16 could be canceled with a full refund to tourists. Aksana has already contacted the travel agent and arranged for the cancellation. The money is promised to be refunded within 14 business days.

«We had an all-inclusive hotel tour for $5500 via early booking. We were offered Egypt, similar in price, for March 21, but it also flashes in the news. As an option, for our money, we could buy a new tour to another destination, for example, Vietnam or the Maldives, where the price for four starts from $7000. For us, this is too expensive. Within the family, we couldn't agree, so we decided to postpone the vacation until the autumn holidays.»

Tour Cancellations: In what cases will the money be fully refunded?

Regarding the options currently offered to Belarusians, "Onliner" spoke with several tour operators.

Here's what they said at "Kompas":

«These days we're sleeping three hours — resolving organizational issues. We are not abandoning our tourists — we are looking for hotels, transfers, and organizing meals for them. Today, the first flight from Belavia is planned to bring home those who did not fly on February 28. As for tours in early to mid-March, yes, we are ready to offer an alternative or a refund of funds», — comments Ivan Danilkevich, director of KOMPAS Touroperator.

Tourists whose flights are officially canceled by Belavia will receive a 100% refund, confirms Ruslan Sehaniuk, head of the company "Time Voyage". With uncanceled flights, everything is more complicated:

«If the flight is not yet officially canceled, you can refuse to fly, but in such a case, actually incurred expenses are considered. Hotels do not cancel bookings without payment. We also offer rescheduling the departure to the same Emirates for a later date, starting from April, or other destinations: Turkey, Georgia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, China, Thailand.»

At Softtour, the situation is different. They note that tourists are mainly refusing trips:

«All flights departing before March 6 have been canceled. Mainly, our tourists are arranging refunds. Finding other options is problematic: for example, for Egypt, only the last tickets for March 7 remain, for Asia, options are only available for the end of the month.»

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