Travel agent Manasik Tours shuts doors as customers forced to seek compensation

A travel agent specialising in Middle Eastern and religious tours has gone out of business, forcing some customers to seek compensation from the industry regulator.

Manasik Tours, which operated as Orient Travel, ceased trading on January 10th, the company and consumer watchdog, the Commission for Aviation Regulation, confirmed on Wednesday.

Both also said that people who lose out as a result of the closure could be entitled to compensation from various traveller protection schemes that the commission runs as Manasik cannot fulfil its obligations to customers.

The commission advised that customers may be covered if they bought a package deal from Manasik, trading as Orient Travel or Orient Travel Corporate & Eastern Escapes, that includes travel, departing from Ireland.

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“You may also be covered if you bought travel commencing in Ireland,” the commission said.

Anyone to whom Manasik issued a refund credit note may be entitled to payment from the regulator’s refund credit note scheme if their original booking was a package that included travel, departing from Ireland, the commission added.

Customers must submit claims within 120 days of the date on which the company ceased trading.

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The commission then assesses their claims to determine the amount that they are due.

Manasik’s website gives the same advice. However, it indicates that some customers may not be covered by the commission’s schemes.

It said those customers should check their credit or debit card companies’ policies or any travel insurance that they might have.

Manasik was one of a small number of Irish companies licensed by Saudi Arabia to offer Hajj pilgrimage tours to Mecca, Islam’s holiest city.

The annual pilgrimage to the city – birthplace of Islam’s founder, the Prophet Muhammad – is one that Muslims are obliged to make once in their lifetime.

Manasik’s filings with the companies’ registrar name Ibrahim Al Kaddo, Rawaa Al-Abde and Moohialdin Al-Mekhlafi as its directors.

A balance sheet dated December 31st, 2021, shows that Manasik Tours had net assets of €85,322 on that date. As a small company, it was not obliged to file a profit and loss account.

It was not possible to contact the company for a comment on Wednesday but its website carried the notice confirming that it had ceased trading the day before.

The commission said it would not know the number of customers hit by the closure until it gets further information.

It also advised customers to review the information on its website to establish if they are eligible to claim.