India & Shimla 16th March

[mikew]

Hello Eric,
I am booked on the above holiday and with just over a week until the scheduled departure of this tour, I understand that the Indian authorities have announced the closure of the Mughal Gardens in New Delhi on March 7th as a result of coronavirus. The reason given is ‘to avoid any large gathering of people’.

With that in mind, how is the programme of this tour going to be affected, given that there will presumably be ‘large gatherings of people’ at many of the other sites included in this tour itinerary? What is the likelihood of other visits being affected in the light of this decision? I’m thinking particularly about the Taj Mahal, especially when you consider that a spike of cases have been reported in the city of Agra in recent days.

At what point is this tour itinerary going to be unrecognisable from that published and are there any plans to cancel this departure on that basis.

Mike

[Erik RivieraTravel]

Dear Mike,

I can understand your apprehension and desire to have as much clarity as possible.

We do currently have another (non-solo) tour out there at the moment and they are finding that when they get to every attraction, they have to undergo a full body scan and temperature check, but nothing has closed. Obviously this is a constantly evolving situation, but one that we are vigilantly monitoring.

So as things stand nothing in the itinerary has changed (apart from extra health/security checks) so things are going ahead as planned. Should anything change we will evaluate that as and when it happens and inform all our passengers as soon as we have that information.

Please rest assured though that your safety and enjoyment (in that order) is our foremost consideration in all our tour decisions.

Erik.

P.S. I do realise that may sound a bit vague but as you can imagine it is hard to give concrete assurances of any kind. But in a nutshell all is OK at the moment (with minor inconveniences), and trust us to have your best interests at heart in everything that we do.

[mikew]

Hello Erik,
Thank you for your extremely prompt reply. I’m sure that Riviera Travel will have their customers best interests at heart as this situation continues to evolve.

Many thanks
Mike

[mikew]

Hello Erik,
Following the cancellation of this departure due to coronavirus, I decided to ask for a cash refund rather than rescheduling this holiday to a later date. I rang RT earlier this week who suggested that my money should be returned to my bank account by the middle of next week.
This morning however, I have received an email giving me a ‘Refund Credit Note’ which effectively means that RT retain my money until 30th Nov 2021.
I note the additional £100 incentive to accept this credit note against any future holiday with RT, but in all honesty it’s insufficient to warrant me accepting this proposal. In addition, without my cash refund it severely restricts my options for future travel with any other tour operator, should I wish to book a holiday, because RT have retained a significant amount of my money which I can’t automatically replace. I would appreciate it if a representative of RT would contact me with some urgency as I believe that I have the legal right to insist on my cash refund. At any rate, I will be seeking legal advice on this issue if a satisfactory solution cannot be agreed.

Mike