AVG Travels, which is based in Melbourne, went into liquidation on Tuesday afternoon and the liquidator said ongoing operations had been suspended.
A Milton man, who had been due to fly to China earlier this week for an 11-day tour, but did not travel as it was cancelled by AVG Travels, said a group of about a dozen people had left Christchurch on Tuesday for Beijing.
The group, which was joined by several Australians in China, arrived to find the accommodation they hoped for was not available and nothing had been paid to the hotel by AVG Travels.
‘‘So basically they’ve ended up in a place stranded, because AVG have paid for nothing at the other end,’’ he said.
The hotel insisted on a deposit from the stranded tourists which equalled the rate they had been quoted.
‘‘The hotel said to them, ‘we’ve got no booking in your name, at all’.’’
The tourists stuck in China would have to pay their own way home.
‘‘I can be thankful that we didn’t end up in that situation.
‘‘As stressful as it is where we are, that would even be more stressful, especially when you consider the cultural and language differences, which are significant.’’
The Milton man and his partner were told they would have to wait 50-70 business days before any refund by AVG Travels.
But with the company in liquidation, his chance of getting money back was ‘‘possibly zero’’.
He said he had lost about $4000 from the canned trip and should have seen a red herring when booking the trip.
‘‘On their website, they didn’t want credit card charges.
‘‘They wanted bank deposits or transfers.
‘‘To me, that’s a red flag, because that means that they can avoid callbacks later.’’
He had travel insurance, but it did not cover this eventuality.
Some people had lost big money — one Perth woman told the Otago Daily Times she had booked her and five grandchildren a trip to Disneyland at a cost of $A16,000 ($NZ19,400) but that was no longer possible.
