Holidays in hell: Profits count more than life and limb for some tour operators
Ellen Bartlett
World Leisure Holidays, the package tour division of Sun International, describes Les Comores as ?magical, mystical … the last of the unspoilt islands?. No doubt they are, or would be, were it not for the minor matter of simmering civil war.
World Leisure also refers to the islands? ?colourful history featuring sultans and pirates?. More on the pirates in a moment.
White sand beaches, coral reefs, tall swaying palms, a volcano, the largest known species of fruit bat: so much to see. So we booked a World Leisure holiday, seven nights at Le Galawa Beach Hotel on Grande Comore, the main island.
It was a day or two after paying ? in full in advance, those are the rules ? that we heard the Federal Islamic Republic of the Comores was experiencing a bout of political instability, a result of the secessionist rebellion on the islands of Anjouan and Moheli. It was an interesting development.
Then the Comoran army invaded Anjouan, but that seemed alright. The army would restore order, anarchy would not be loosed upon the archipelago. But the army was trounced ? 40 dead, scores injured, including civilians, 88 troops being held as prisoners of war. A ?debacle,? by all accounts.
I placed the first of what was to be many calls to World Leisure, and spoke to Nicky Spriggs. I think I irritated her. ?What exactly is it that you want?? she asked.
I wanted her assessment of the situation, and to discuss our options if it deteriorated further. There is no situation, she said. There are no options. If we were thinking of backing out, she warned, it would cost us the full package price ? about R10 000.
She softened suddenly. Everything was absolutely fine, she said. Really. Last time there was a coup in the Comores, the guests at Le Galawa did not even notice.
The next day there were anti-government demonstrations in Moroni, the capital of Grande Comore. The army managed to stop those, though they had to shoot a few people in the process. Then the Comoran President, Mohamed Taki Abdoulkarim, dissolved the government and assumed total control of the state.
There was a run on machetes in Moroni.
I did my own checking. Everyone I spoke to agreed, it was not an ideal time for a holiday in the Comores.
My husband spoke to the managing director of World Leisure, Bruce Hutchinson. I guess he irritated him, too. ?I have never had a conversation like this in my life!? huffed Hutchinson.
There were 500 people heading for holidays in the Comores; 499 were happy and only one was not, he sneered. The only way you can pull out, he added, is if the airlines stop flying.
Emirates Air had a different attitude. The sales manager spoke to the regional manager, who said ?with two children he also would not choose to go there at this moment?. The airline agreed almost instantly to waive its usual cancellation fee ?during this uncertain period?.
He added that their Comores operations manager had described the situation as ?one notch short of a state of emergency?.
To which Jackie Turnbull, the operations manager of World Leisure, responded: ?The operations manager in the Comores does exaggerate.?
Put yourself in our shoes, she said. ?If we allow one cancellation to go through, then everyone is going to start cancelling. Last time there was a coup, we had people cancelling holidays in Mauritius because there was a coup in the Comores.?
In the end, World Leisure did agree to refund our money, probably not because the customer was right, but because the customer was noisy.
The news from Moroni this week is of demonstrators battling government troops. Perhaps the guests at Le Galawa are snorkelling as usual. Little do they know, there are still pirates out there.