Holland Tourists' China Visa Problem

On the 11th Aug 2009, I took a Guang Dong group from China. The group consists of 25 adults and 8 children. Among the the tourists, there are 2 tour members from Holland.

Their itinerary is that I pick them up from KLIA ( Kuala Lumpur International Airport ) and immediately transfer them to put up a night at Melaka. Then early in the morning we will tour the Melaka city tour. After the city tour, we will head for Singapore.

So, I have to send the tourists to Singapore for a night. This means that after sending off the group, I will have to spend a night at Johor Bahru with my driver. The next day then only we will receive the group again at 2pm from the Gelang Patah immigration point.

After picking them up, the group will directly go to Genting Highlands. Usually we will reach Genting Highlands very late at about 9pm as it is a very long journey from the check in point to Genting Highlands. I will be able to finish work by 11pm.

The next day again, early in the morning we will check out from the hotel and head towards Kuala Lumpur for the city tour.

The above mentioned itinerary is a new itinerary for the China Guang Dong group. This is again one of the most economic tour group for the tourists and that’s why this kind of itinerary is getting more popular.

So, when I am taking this group, the two tour members from Holland ( a father and his daughter ) came to tell me about the visa problem. The father told me that his daughter’s China visa has expired and asked me if it is possible to arrange the visa for his daughter.

It was a hectic tour and I told him it is not possible to arrange for the visa. So, after gone through the tour, we were heading to airport.

I told the receptionist that there are 2 foreigners from Holland in the China group. She checked the China visa for both the tourists. She found out that the visa expiry date for the daughter.

She told me according to the IATA regulations, it is not possible to arrange the embarkation card for the daughter. She said that if she issue the embarkation card to the tourist who does not have the China visa, the Holland tourist will not be able to go into China. Hence, she will be sent back again to Malaysia and the Malaysia airline will be penalize for her mistake. And for this mistake, she will receive a warning letter.

So, I told the father about this matter and they decided to buy the flight ticket to Hong Kong. While we were at the MAS office to purchase the ticket, the lady also did not want to issue the flight ticket to the Holland tourists. According to the MAS sales person, the Holland tourists must have an onward flight ticket, then only she can issue the Hong Kong flight ticket. So, finally the Holland tourist has no choice but to buy the return ticket for her daughter as well in order for his daughter to go into China from Hong Kong.

So, my point here is that this is a very great lesson for tour guides and a very good experience for me as well. It is very important that tour guides should know about the IATA regulations as well. So, the next time when your tourists do not have visa for the destination country, make sure that you know the procedure about it.