Images and stories of broken buses, the disappearance of the main organizer, and sleeping rough overcame the social network X on Thursday. Some of whom the young people are minors, the youngest just 13 years old. Latvia is currently organizing the transport home of around 70 young people, while the rest are being helped home by their parents or insurers.
In total, three buses with more than 100 young people made the journey, and one of the buses had technical problems at the beginning.
A participant in the trip said on the social networking site "X" that on the night of July 29, three buses with more than 100 young people left Rīga. On July 30 they were in Warsaw, on July 31 in Budapest, on August 1 in Venice, on August 2 in Monaco/Nice/Cannes, and on August 3 in Barcelona. They should have been in Madrid on August 4 and Lisbon the next day.
mans pieredzes stāsts no fisom brauciena uz sērfošanas nometni portugālē, par kuru pašlaik runā ziņās, a thread.
— Samanta (@Samxanta) August 8, 2024
lūgums neuztvert visu kā faktus, jo esmu tikai parasts dalībnieks, informācija ir daudz un ne visa nokļūst pie manis, tāpēc aprakstīšu visu no sava skatu punkta
The girls who did make it to Lisbon told Latvian Radio that the whole journey had started late, the double-decker bus kept breaking down and the group was noticeably behind the other participants. In the end, the bus broke down in Slovenia, leaving the group a day behind the others.
While others had already reached their destination for the day and explored the city, this group had been stranded on the side of the road and in petrol stations.
At one point, one of the young people became unwell and had to seek help at a hospital in Barcelona.
However, the troubles did not end there, as the other double-decker bus also broke down. The young people had to spend the night in the street, on the pavement. Meanwhile, the rest of the group moved on.
Then the group leader, Matīss, offered the option of returning some of the young people home. 10 young people agreed to go home. However, things did not go smoothly here either, the girls said that the third bus had collided with a lorry while driving at night, damaging the windscreen and making it difficult to drive.
One of the young women who was on the trip and was on another bus that had already traveled further told Latvian Radio that at one point her group leaders asked everyone to charge their phones and power banks, but after 15 minutes the bus stopped at a petrol station and told everyone to get out and take all their belongings.
It turned out that their bus was going after the young people who were stranded in Barcelona.
"We were just forced to stay in a petrol station on the side of the motorway overnight, where they told us there were scorpions roaming around. We had no physical place to sleep. Some of the young people had tents with them because we were going to camp in Lisbon, but me and my friends didn't have a tent because we booked a hostel, so we just had to sleep outside a café on chairs while people walked around," said a participant.
The Consumer Rights Protection Centre (PTAC) has launched free repatriation and pre-repatriation accommodation for travelers due to the liquidity problems of Fisom Ltd, the CRPC said in a press release on Thursday evening. The Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs identified the persons in need of repatriation in order for PTAC to decide on the most appropriate mode of transport.
Sanita Gertmane, a spokesperson for the center, told Latvian Radio on Friday that most of the young people would start their journey home by bus on Friday evening. The state will pay for travel and accommodation, but the young people will have to pay for other expenses, such as meals. Gertmane also said that several of the young people had insurance policies that provided them with a ride home if needed, and some parents had their own transport or found other options.
Gertmane also told Latvian Radio that she had received few complaints about the operator, and had been given several consultations, for example if a trip was canceled and another one offered, but there had been no complaints about similar situations so far.
"We closely monitor the activities of tour operators, but so far we had not suspected that anything was wrong," said Ms Gertmane.
Now, however, PTAC has suspended the tour operator's licence, which means that no further trips will take place.
Inga Kavaca, board member of the Latvian Association of Travel Agents and Tour Operators ALTA, said in a press release that there are several factors to consider when assessing the credibility of a tour operator: "First, you should check the legal side of the company - whether it is registered and licensed. Secondly, the reputation and feedback from other clients should also be taken into account. Thirdly, I recommend that you look carefully at what is included in the price and whether it is adequate."
"Remember that suspiciously cheap offers are also often hiding some hidden gems. I also recommend choosing tour operators or agents that are members of ALTA and those that have been on the market for a long time," said Kavaca.
