Thursday, June 08, 2006

Mauvaise Voyage

The recent interest in getting the incentives right in France doesn't appear to extend to the courts. This should be good for the travel and tourism biz:

PARIS, June 7, 2006 (AFP) - A French travel agency was ordered Wednesday to pay more than a million euros in damages to three tourists who were abducted by a Philippine kidnap gang during a diving holiday.

Stéphane Loisy, his partner Sonia Wendling and Marie Moarbes were among 21 people seized by the Abu Sayyaf guerrilla group in the Malaysian diving resort of Sipadan in April 2000.

They were held captive for more than four months in Jolo island in the southern Philippines, the stronghold of the rebel group blamed for a spate of kidnappings, murders and bomb attacks over the past decade.

.... The court ruled that the company had failed in its duty to monitor the risks in the region — and should have realised the Western tourists would act as a magnet for the kidnap gang.

No comments: