Many cancel trip

Press, 18 April 1980, Page 1

Many cancel trip

By

LES BLOXHAM,

Travel editor Mew Zealanders are ' having second thoughts ; about going to Moscow to ; see the Olympic Games. A : quarter of those who had ; fully booked all available ; tours before the Afghanis- ; tan crisis have since with- i drawn. Travel agencies have hurriedly reopened the i tours for sale, but they I are not optimistic in the • wake of the United States’ , boycott and the possibility * of other countries taking ; similar action. i Air New Zealand and its ' agents are now pinning i their hopes on a positive | decision to participate by I the New Zealand Olympic I Committee. They believe that only then will they i ’-.ave a chance of refilling j the tours. For the prospective ' traveller, taking the | gamble between now and the May 24 deadline for ; Olympic invitations could I prove costly. From last Saturday, the ! cancellation fee tagged to i the tours was increased i from $20.0 a person to | $lOOO, plus the full cost of i the tickets-to-events pack- t i age of about $350. This higher cancellation ; fee now applies to all I travellers, irrespective of I when' they booked. Travel I. industry sources report i that some people began [ planning to go to Moscow ! as far back as 1977. The lack of interest in : the Games is also reflect- ! ed by the number of gate i tickets remaining unsold | by Air New Zealand. The airline, which origi- ! nally considered its allocation of 15,568 tickets would be insufficient to meet the demand, has sold only half of them. Yester« day 7850 were still avail- i able. .!' A spokesman for the airline also confirmed that i of the 320 beds allocated : to New Zealand’s tourist , market by the Soviet authorities, 87 had sudden- ; ly become vacant because, of cancellations. . “Air New Zealand is in constant touch with the Games organising committee in Moscov’ in an.! attempt to’ negotiate full refunds or a more satis- i factory cancellation fee,’’ ii said the spokesman. ■ He said the airline [ would be making a further f statement on the question ! of refunds if New Zealand [ decided not to take part in i the Games. The tours, marketed jointly by Atlantic and Pacific Travel and Thomas ■ Cook, range in price from $2980 for 33 days (17 in ■ i Moscow using student apartments) to $4932 for a 60-day trip (17 in Moscow with first-class and tour- ' ist-class accommodation) and including Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Europe.