Exclusive: TICO Speaks Out on Sinorama Failure

When Sinorama Holidays Inc shut down operations earlier this month in Ontario, customers were left shocked and upset their vacations were cancelled without any refunds, while wondering how this could happen. TravelPulse Canada wondered as well, so we reached out to Richard Smart, President and CEO of TICO, to shed a bit of light.

Smart says Sinorama Holidays (Ontario) had met its reporting requirements with TICO and that there were significant business dealings with affiliated companies, something that is common with private enterprises. It’s those inter-company transactions that are under review and include cooperation among the two other provincial regulators and Vacances Sinorama.

Early indications reported by the media indicate that Vacances Sinorama Trust Funds are insufficient to meet future travel services. TICO’s focus will be to determine the root cause of why Sinorama Holidays (Ontario) could not meet its customer obligations.

Both Quebec and BC have cancelled the operating licenses of the affiliated companies of Sinorama within their jurisdiction. Communications to consumers from both Regulators is available on their respective websites.

“The root cause of these specific failures are the subject of separate reviews underway by each Regulator. TICO cannot comment on the activities underway by Quebec and B.C,” says Smart.

With a maximum of $5 million per failure, which will likely be exceeded by the claimants in this case, we asked Smart if he had an idea of what the expected percentage of recovery per claimant would be. Smart says it’s simply too early to speculate on those amounts.

He expects that in most cases, the credit card companies will refund consumers for non-provision of services and highlights the vast majority of consumer transactions relating to travel services were processed by credit card.

In the event they don’t, the final claim on Ontario’s industry financed compensation fund could indeed exceed the $5 million legislated cap.

TICO’s Closure Advisory has directed consumers to contact their credit card company for a refund and/or their insurance policies.

“TICO is taking this failure very seriously and is actively considering its next steps. While our focus is ensuring consumers are provided the protections available to them, we are also focused on the root cause and how best to minimize the impact to the industry finance compensation fund. TICO is in constant communication with the other provincial regulators.”

The 6 month claims filing deadline for consumers is February 11, 2019.

TravelPulse Canada will continue to monitor and update this story.