A Hong Kong travel agency has apologized after participants criticized its seven-day "mystery tour" for failing to deliver promised accommodations and itinerary, including substituting a four-star hotel with a two-star guesthouse despite the HK$15,000 price tag.

But soon after the apology statement, the travel agency made another social media posting of an ongoing tour, but the wordings were apparently being sarcastic towards participants of the previous tour.

This came as “mystery tours” rolled out by travel agencies started to gain popularity, in which participants will have no idea their destination and itinerary before arriving at the airport that day.

The incident has gone viral on social media Threads recently, with participants of CLS Holiday’s recent seven-day mystery Sri Lanka tour lashing out at the arrangement.

“A promised stay at a four-star hotel became a stay at a two-star guesthouse, and we have to wake up at 5am every day,” a participant said, among other grievances including the tour guide’s poor attitude.

CLS Holiday issued a response in apology, saying that their biggest mistake was trusting their Sri Lankan counterpart.

“We trusted a local tour agency, recommending us to a hotel that it said is an internationally-recognized four-star hotel, but it turned out to be a local two-star hotel,” CLS Holiday said in a statement.

The local travel agency also said they wrongly trusted their Sri Lankan counterpart to bring the tour group to two mountains – the Sigiriya Rock and Pidurangala Rock.

“The tour agency told us that they are worried that participants might suffer from a heat stroke if we get there after noon, and that results in us setting off at 5am without considering whether our guests can handle it,” the agency said. “These two factors combined immediately sparked grievances within participants, and therefore prompted the complaints online.”

The agency went on in its statement, saying that they have already announced a series of compensation the following day. It added that the participants were very understanding and accepted the compensation.

But netizens did not seem to accept the apology, commenting: “Blaming everything on the Sri Lankan travel agency, and hence shifting all responsibilities to them.”

“Being an organizer of a tour group, it is normal to cross-check information. It is not that hard to double check everything, right?”

The author of the original post also responded afterwards, saying that the travel agency owned up to its own mistakes and deficiencies, and the whole group also accepted the reasonable compensation deal.

Just as netizens expected the incident to come to a close, CLS Holiday made a posting on social media with photos of participants of its next group tour setting off to Yemen.

But the caption ignited another discussion on social media once again, as the travel agency said: “Thank you for the participants not finding it exhausting after only getting three-and-a-half hours of sleep between connecting flights.”

“There will not be only stays at four- or five-star hotels, I hope you all will enjoy your stay close to nature,” it added.

Netizens said: “After you guys received the compensation, they now can say whatever they want.”

In response, the original author of the complaint posting said: “We all saw the posting, their PR (public relations) is really poor. The incident has already ended, I will not further comment.”

(Staff reporter)

HK travel agency under fire after 'mystery tour' fails to meet promises, then mocks customers