Tour company failure costs Canadians

TORONTO, April 17 (UPI) -- The abrupt shutdown of Canadian tour operator Conquest Vacations has led to tourists in Mexico being forced to pay thousands of dollars to come home.

The Toronto company announced it was out of business Wednesday, and travelers who booked vacations through them were left in the lurch for hotel and return airfare costs, the Toronto Sun reported Friday.

Among them was Chris Lee, 28, who told the Sun in a telephone interview that hotel staff in Cancun, Mexico, slipped a letter under his door demanding $1,776 after Conquest announced its collapse.

He had already paid Conquest about $1,600 for the one-week, two-person vacation. He said he called the Canadian consulate emergency line, and was told to pay "regardless of whether we owed the money or not," the newspaper said.

Toronto resident Bissoongai Seepersaud, her sister and four children also paid for their vacation in advance, but were told she had to pay $6,000 to their Cancun hotel, or police would become involved, the report said.

The Sun said no one at the Foreign Affairs Department would comment on the situation.