Khanh Hoa: Travel firm fined for hiring illegal foreign workers

Khanh Hoa (VNA) – Silent Bay Travel and Trade Co. Ltd was fined 80 million VND, or 3,590 USD, by the Khanh Hoa provincial People’s Committee on July 19 for bad record keeping and employing illegal foreign workers.

As a tour operator in resort Nha Trang City, the south central province of Khanh Hoa, its International Tour Operator license had been withdrawn by the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism.

The travel agency was found providing services to 6,187 tourists, mostly from China, from February to May this year without keeping adequate records of these people.

The company has also recruited 64 Chinese tour guides without work permits to work in Vietnam. The guides have been then deported by the province after the violation was discovered.

According to Vietnam’s tourism regulations, foreign travel firms must work with Vietnamese agencies and use local tour guides if they want to bring tourists into the country.

The People’s Committee of Khanh Hoa province has requested its Department of Tourism to tighten control on local travel business and enforce stricter penalties for foreign travel agencies and tour guides operating illegally as well as domestic firms helping them offer unauthorised services in the locality.

It also urged for a proper policy to better serve and manage the increasing number of Chinese and Russian vacationers to Vietnam.

It was estimated that Khanh Hoa welcomed more than 200,000 Chinese holidaymakers in the first half of 2016, a five-fold increase from the same period last year.-VNA