Tour firm ejected before failure

A travel agency that has left travellers $1.9 million out of pocket was booted out of its industry association last month because it wouldn’t hand over all its financial records.

Nearly 1000 bookings by New Zealand and Australian travellers have been cancelled, some at short notice, following the liquidation of Sinorama NZ this week.

The company blamed its Canadian booking agency, Vacances Sinorama, which went into administration in July.

Liquidator Peri Finnigan of Mcdonald Vague says it could take up to a year to sort out the claims. Bookings for trips and tours, mainly to China and Japan, had been made until late next year.

Andrew Olsen, chief executive of TAANZ, the Travel Agents Association of New Zealand, said TAANZ cancelled Sinorama NZ’S membership early last month.

‘‘They weren’t able to furnish all the reports that we requested and we looked at the situation and made a call that they weren’t meeting the requirements and ended their membership with us.

‘‘It’s not uncommon. People join and leave all the time, but this is not an insignificant matter and we understand the size and scope and number of customers that are impacted here and we are really relying on the liquidators to make some sense of [it].’’

Customers who had bought vouchers for Sinorama tours through Grabone or Groupon would have to approach those companies, Olsen said.

But travellers who booked directly with Sinorama may qualify for compensation from a fund which all TAANZ members are required to pay into.

The fund pays up to $100,000 as a result of the failure of any one TAANZ member.

Olsen said the Sinorama claims might exceed the fund’s ability to pay. Agents paid a security based on turnover, and the figure Sinorama had provided was quite a lot lower than the liquidator’s estimate.

‘‘We only know what we know . . . and if we’re not provided the accurate information then we all get surprised at the same time,’’ Olsen said.

In a typical liquidation, he said only about 20 customers might need to be covered by the security fund.

‘‘This is a slightly different situation and I think as far as implications and who’s responsible for what, the liquidators are looking at the parent company.’’

One affected traveller, Bruce Masson, said he had been unhappy with Sinorama’s communications and had alerted TAANZ in late September.

Masson’s trip to China in October was cancelled in September, but he was one of the ‘‘lucky’’ ones in that he had been refunded and had only lost $560 in visa money.

He believed TAANZ should have alerted customers to Sinorama’s cancelled membership three weeks ago.

‘‘It’s pretty disappointing that TAANZ had an opportunity to make a difference to us changing our tactics to get our money out quicker.’’