SECRETARIAT OF TOURISM MAKES A WARNING CALL OF ATTENTION TO THE ON VACATION CHAIN AFTER NUMEROUS COMPLAINTS PRESENTED BY TOURISTS

· Several commitments were established with which the hotel chain must comply.

A strong warning call to the officials of the On Vacation Hotels was made by the Tourism Secretary Yadira Olivo Florez, during a meeting held at the Departmental Government, after the private hotel chain exceeded the number of complaints lodged by national and international visitors at the Consumer Department and at the Tourism Secretariat, on the supposed bad service offered by the company in its eight hotels on the island.

According to the official, the destination must be respected and the private company cannot be the exception. She added that there are social and environmental duties, as well as respect for human dignity during the treatment of their clients, who become tourists within the island.

"We cited the On Vacation chain, along with all the institutions that are part of the environmental and tourism issue because they have already exceeded the acceptable number of complaints by tourists, alluding to misleading advertising, poisonings due to food consumption, disrespect for hours of arrival of tourists and many more. As Secretary of Tourism, I have the duty and obligation to call to order, to sit down with them and find out what is happening. They have already been stopped because it is not possible to correct them and they continue to revert in the same faults and they have been doing this for more than 15 years. Then, they were made to see everything that this generates,"explainedOlivo Florez.

The Environmental Prosecutor's Office, the Consumer's Office, the Tourism Police and the Secretariats of Government, Health and Public Services and Environment accompanied the Tourism Office during the meeting in which it was reiterated that both the island resources and inhabitants should be respected.

"If they are profiting from the island, the people they serve deserve a decent treatment. We as islanders deserve the best. We started an intensive scrutiny on the On Vacation chain in every way and we expect to see immediate results,"said the Secretary.

On the other hand, within the commitments acquired by the On Vacation chain, the following stand out:

1. The analysis of the products they offer as an organization, since they are eight hotels that surpass all capacities at all levels and are not complying, according to Secretary Olivo.

2. Customer service improvement.

3. Hygienic-sanitary improvement.

"They are a private entity, but we are being affected as a Department by the brand and the impact on tourism. The commitment of us as administration is to do daily scrutiny and we are doing it, this consumes us a lot of time and a lot of personnel watching a private entity. They have to look at their legal and management issues because we see many flaws. On part of the Public Ministry, they will take their measures because they already have the information,"added Olivo Florez.

Similarly, the Environmental Attorney, Sara Pechthalt, emphasized the carelessness of the institution regarding the care of the ecosystem and the alleged lack of initiatives to encourage tourists to take care of the environment.

"The fact that they have a cheaper program or plan, which allows people with lesser buying power to get to know this beautiful island, does not exempt them from doing it the right way. People cannot be cheated or mistreated, but what we cannot allow is that the name of San Andres is mistreated. What is being asked of them as private entity is that they reevaluate and audit each of their establishments, analyze all the elements that make up their business and see how they are going to solve it,"she concluded.