By the A.M.
Costa Rica staff
The Ministry of Economy, the Costa
Rican Institute of Tourism and the
National Chamber of Tourism, joined
for the campaign called Responsabilízate
(‘Be Responsible’) for the
prevention tourist fraud.
This campaign is coordinated by the
International Consumer Protection
and Enforcement Network, in order to
prevent, inform and educate
consumers about the risks of fraud
in the tourism services market.
According to Victoria Hernandez,
Minister of Economy, the program
"aims to avoid fraudulent practices
in the purchase of tourist services,
since most of them are carried out
through electronic commerce and the
need for consumers to have tools
that allow them to become informed."
Tourism specialists find that the
majority of tourists buy tourism
services through technological
platforms. It is evident that
consumers need to educate themselves
with better practices and tools for
the proper and safe use of such
shopping platforms, and thus avoid
fraud.
María Amalia Revelo, Minister of
Tourism said that, "last year Costa
Rica was visited by more than 3
million tourists and this year we
expect the figures to be equally
positive."
For the minister, a permanent
commitment is required, a site that
can generate preventive information
that is useful when tourists are
planning holidays. It will urge
consumers to choose safe sites or
certified companies, verify the
comments of previous users and the
conditions of the packages to avoid
scams.
According to the Tourism Chamber,
consumer education is key to
reducing tourist vulnerability and
protecting them from cheating or
scams.
The tourist protection campaign is
based on the following tips:
* Buy in well-known websites with a
good reputation, because searching
for the best offer lead consumers to
unknown and unreliable sites.
* Beware of proposals that seem too
good to be true, both in terms of
price and royalties or other
conditions.
* Check that the "URL" of the site
matches the Web where you think it
is and verifies that your address
starts with "HTTPS" (the "s" at the
end corresponds to a secure site).
* Buy in trusted and reputable
online sites, to avoid being a
victim of data scams.
* Verify that the site where you are
going to make the purchase has an
office in the country, otherwise you
cannot raise complaints.
* Beware of sites that do not
clearly indicate the place where
they are physically located, or the
full identification of the person in
charge ( ID Number or Company
registration number known as Cedula
Juridica).
* Inquire about the policy on
changes of dates and claims. Before
buying online, check that they have
their refund policy in a visible
place and it is up to date.
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A.M.
Costa Rica archive
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The program aims to
avoid fraudulent
practices in the
purchase of tourist
services.
* Check
the comments or
experiences of other
people with the online
site, the experience
of others could avoid
inconveniences.
* Do an online search
of the name of the
company and check
opinions, comments,
and reviews.
* Suspect those with a
100% positive rating
and highly attractive
offers.
* Try to use a single
debit/credit card
specifically to make
purchases online, be
aware of reviewing the
movements of the
account statement.
* It is important to
maintain an adequate
antivirus program on
the computer or device
in which you usually
make your purchases
online.
* Make sure that the
price advertised in
the tour package
includes the taxes of
the country and that
the announced price is
the same as was paid.
* Before traveling,
contact the hotel
where you will be
staying and verify
that the reservations
are valid.
* Check the
reservation of air
tickets in the app of
the airline with the
reservation number.
Last year, as reported
by A.M. Costa Rica in
June 2018, an agency
canceled the so-called
"Plane of the Ticos",
which was to carry 300
passengers, heading
for the World Cup in
Russia. The
cancellation was for a
problem with the
airline. The company
relocated some
passengers on other
commercial flights,
while other people
asked for a refund.
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Have you
heard of a scam in a
tour package? We would
like to know your
thoughts on this story.
Send your comments to: news@amcostarica.com
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