The national president of the Association of Tour Operators for Incoming Tourism (Opetur), Michel Musa Banks, complains that 70% of the local transport companies that carry tourists are circulating in vehicles with expired licenses and do not comply with the legally established requirements to transport tourists.
He said that hopefully there will not be an accident involving one of these non-compliant buses as the international insurance that many tourists purchase would not be valid if they were travelling in an unlicensed bus.
He said that all vehicles should have current licenses issued by the National Transit and Ground Transport Institute (Intrant). In the past the control of tourist transport was under the Ministry of Tourism but with the enactment of Law 63-17 this responsibility has been transferred to Intrant. To date, Intrant has not issued licenses to the owners of the tourist buses.
Musa Banks complained that because of apparently lax enforcement policies at Intrant, tour operators could be the object of million dollar lawsuits if an uninsured or unlicensed tour bus had an accident that led to tourists being injured or killed, it would reflect badly on our country if Intrant had not even begun to process the renewals and issuances of licenses. Banks concluded that the licensing of tour buses should have stayed within the Ministry of Tourism.
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Hoy
20 June 2018
