Jorge Cortés, the owner of the travel agency Destinos TV located in Escazu, announced the bankruptcy due to lack of liquidity.

"Today I announce that Destinos TV closes its doors, we were the leading company and it has been destroyed. Now there are more than 50 people without a job and I am looking for the money to be able to pay them," said Cortés.

The owner of the agency made its closure public in a press conference, a month after the company was the center of controversy for an apparent fraud during a special trip for 186 people to Cancun, Mexico in Easter. According to the travelers’ complaints they had made the payment for the trip and they did not get the accommodations as had been agreed.

According to Cortés, since that misunderstanding with customers the company received many cancellations for other trips, and, as a result, the revenues were reduced by 60 percent. "Sales went down from $1 million per month to just $600,000," he said.

Cortés says that now the company will not be able to give the refunds to clients who had already paid for trips, with the advertisers that already paid for advertising, with the providers and cannot pay the 50 employees it has to lay off.

However, the owner of Destinos TV said that he will look for a way to pay all the people to whom he owes money because of the company bankruptcy, "do not look for me, I will look for you," said Cortés.

The Costa Rican Association of Travel Agencies said that, since Monday the 13th, the board of directors had agreed to expel Destinos TV from its membership, because the company had not made its monthly membership payments to the association.  

"The agreement to withdraw the travel agency was taken at the meeting of the Board of Directors, held yesterday, on the grounds that the company was attempting against the economic interests of the Association and the fulfillment of its obligations," said Sary Valverde, the president of the association.

In addition, as a response to the fraud complains of passengers traveling to Cancun during Easter, as A.M. Costa Rica reported on April 23, the Ministry of Economy said that the company does not have authorization to sell  any travel tour packages.
 
According to the Ministry, since June 2018, they had "denounced Destinos TV to the National Consumer Commission, for selling public and generalized tour packages without authorization," said the Ministry in its statement.

The National Consumer Commission reports that, since November 2018, a precautionary measure was in place in which Destinos TV was ordered, "to suspend the commercialization of holiday contracts that imply the future execution of services and that they do not have the authorization of the Ministry of Economy, as well as suspend any advertising activity in any communication medium aimed at offering such contracts or making them known to consumers."

Notification of this precautionary measure was delivered to the travel agency in November, 2018.

Given the travel agency's refusal to comply with the precautionary measure, the Ministry announced that it is in the process of imposing the following sanctions:

- Fine, that could be equivalent between 10 to 40 basic salaries fine rate. That could be a fine between $7,800 up to $ 31,434 (The basic salary fine rate is the amount for public employees, which is used as the base to calculate the fee. Based salary fine is approximately ¢466,200 colones or about $785.85).

- The judicial execution for the collection of the fine.

- Possible complaint to the Public Ministry for the crime of disobedience to the authority.

In addition, the Ministry confirmed that it has no jurisdiction to provide compensation for damages (material or moral), which could have been caused by the failure of the Easter trip to Cancun.

The specialists of the Ministry advise people affected by the total non-compliance in the Cancun trip that they have the right to the refund of the total amount paid, and they can lodge the complaint at the offices of the National Consumer Commission.

Regarding the controversies of the agency, Mr. Cortés said that the problems with the trip to Cancun were caused by airline changes after air accidents so 100 percent of flights could not be met.

"As you have learned, during the last weeks due to the recent plane crashes, very drastic measures have been taken towards the airlines in order to protect the integrity of the passengers,” said Cortés.

Cortés says that the delay in the flight back to Costa Rica was the fault of "The Mexican Aviation Authority is checking that each crew has the necessary rest hours and 28 airlines, among them several Latin Americans, have had to stop operating an airplane model of a brand known by all of you."

The travel agency had been reported on social networks for not having complied with the accommodation agreement of tourists who traveled to Cancun for Easter, announced that the return to Costa Rica, which was scheduled for Sunday would be one day late. The tourists arrived on Monday night.

Mr. Cortés said in a statement to tourists, " unfortunately this situation has caused a wave of consequences, including cancellations of future trips that make it impossible to maintain the continuous operation of Easter and subsequent flights."

Regarding the reason for the delay in the return to the country, the travel agency said that "'SHY AVIATION' flight operator has informed us that the flight originally scheduled for return on April 21 will be rescheduled for Monday 22 in the evening hours. That additional day will compensate for the waiting time prior to accessing the rooms."

Regarding the additional expense that tourists must pay for an extra hotel night, the agency confirmed that they would assume that cost, "Naturally we will assume the hotel costs until they check out on the 22nd. We ask (to the tourist) that on Monday do not make distant trips since between 6 to 7 p.m., we have planned the transfer to the airport and we thank them for their patience and understanding," said the agency on its statement. "In addition, two representatives from the agency traveled to Cancun to help tourists with pertinent information to re-program and support them with what they require."

The Easter trip scandal was public on April 17, when a group of 180 tourists, mostly Costa Ricans, reported on social networks and local TV channels, that they had been being tricked into a vacation package to Cancun by the travel agency.

According to complaints, tourists had purchased a package that included plane tickets, transfers, and accommodations at the hotel located in Cancun, from Thursday to Sunday.

On arriving at the hotel on Thursday, they were informed that the reservations had not been made and that they could not stay at the hotel. Tourists' report they had to wait more than six hours in the street until they received a response from the travel agency.

The travel agency replied in a press release confirmed the transfer of tourists. "Today (Wednesday of Holy Week), in the early hours of the morning, 180 passengers boarded the San Jose-Cancun flight at the Juan Santamaría airport at 2:55 am, scheduled flight time on the Viva Aerobus airline, to Mexican company with which destinations TV operates more than 100 flights a year on time. Passengers arrived at 5:25 am local time in Cancun, and then they were transferred to the hotel and at 6:30 am they arrived at the Oasis hotel."

According to the agency, the problem with the lodging was because when they arrived in Cancun at the Hotel of the Oasis Chain, they (the hotel) could not deliver the rooms when the passengers arrived because they were not ready at that time. “It is an operational issue for groups leaving at that same time."

The agency said that the delay was due to the high season but that all 180 tourists had already been settled in their respective rooms. "The involuntary high season delays in airlines and hotels are normal, although logically they create inconveniences among passengers due to the high flow of income. At the time of entry was the hotel manager and only received a response from the reception staff, at local time in Costa Rica all passengers have received their respective rooms."

However, on social networks, tourists denied what was said by the travel agency and confirmed that many people had to pay for accommodations in another hotel.

This was the second case in ten months in which the company caused controversy by breaching the terms of travel packages that it sells to tourists.

In June 2018, a group of 300 tourists had purchased World Cup trips to Russia were left stuck at the Juan Santamaría airport.

The charter flight that was supposed to transport 300 Costa Ricans was canceled by the agency. The company said that the provider did not comply with the contract.

"The responsibility is 100 percent mine for making the decision to operate with another company different from the ones used at other times," said Mr. Cortés in a press release on that time.

The company said that a few days after signing the contract for a plan to leave Thursday and return on June 28, the provider changed the rules, offering alternatives on smaller planes and higher costs.

"Nine days ago I started receiving information that the provider had problems with the offered plans," said Cortés.

In that case, some of the tourists were sent to Russia on commercial flights but some others asked for their money back.