IMPORTANT TO NOTE
Please read these booking conditions carefully.
All holidays advertised here are operated by Asia Art Tours Ltd
1) To make a booking you must pay via your payment page (to be sent after your itinerary is agreed to) along with a non-refundable deposit of up to 25%-30 of your itinerary’s balance. We will then invoice you for the remainder of the cost, which you must pay no later than 6 weeks before departure. If you book less than 6 weeks before departure, full payment must be made on booking. The booking is not accepted and no contract shall exist between us until the date shown on the confirmation issued by Asia Art Tours. Notification of cancellation must be made to Asia Art Tours in writing and will be effective upon receipt. Exceptions to the payment conditions above may be granted on a case by case basis.
2) Bookings made will not be deemed accepted until we have received received a deposit payment and balance payment within their respective and agreed to payment windows. As per clause 4 below and clients will be deemed to have read and accepted our booking conditions regardless of whether a booking form has been received in our office.
3) If you cancel your booking after you have paid in full the following cancellation charges will be made:
between 40 and 60 days before departure: 40% of the holiday cost
between 20 and 40 days before departure: 60% of the holiday cost
between 14 and 20 days before departure: 80% of the holiday cost
14 days or less before departure (or fail to join the holiday): 100% of the holiday cost
These dates refer to the date we receive written notification of your cancellation, signed by at least one of the individuals who has posted deposit. Cancellations notifications must be clearly dated, signed and sent by registered post or via email with binding electronic signature. Failure to comply can result in 100% cancellation charges. We strongly recommend you to take out travel insurance against irrecoverable cancellation costs, such as medical emergencies, or to confirm with your Health Insurance that you will indeed be covered under your plan while overseas.
4) If you are prevented from traveling, you may transfer your booking to another person provided they meet all the requirements relating to that holiday. There may be additional costs such as non-transferable airline tickets/train tickets/ bus tickets/ visa fees and permit fees may also be payable. Should you transfer your booking to another person, you will both be jointly and severally liable for payment of the holiday price and other associated expenses as well as the transferee following all local laws and regulations. We require a written transfer notification or email with electronic signature for all transfers, clearly dated and signed by transferor and transferee.
5) If you do not pay the balance of your holiday cost by the due date of 6 weeks before departure your booking may be terminated if all attempts to contact your party to address this situation are without success.
6) We will let you know as soon as we can if, we are forced to significantly alter or cancel your holiday. In these circumstances, you can choose one of the following options.
- accept our offer of a replacement holiday of equal or lower quality (if available) and we will refund the difference in cost; or
b) accept our offer of a replacement holiday of equivalent or higher quality (if available), or
c) ask us for a refund of the money you have paid.
Your decision about which alternative you accept must be made as soon as possible after we notify you. Depending on your date of departure and the extent of the alterations our prior codified refund policy (based on your date of depature) will apply, particularly in cases of force majeure(for example a typhoon, a political event, an artist having a family emergency).
We strongly advise you not to incur any non-refundable incidental expenses, e.g. for visas or flights, before we send you a final confirmation of your itinerary.
We shall, however, endeavor to send you your final confirmation between 40 and 21 days prior to departure. This will vary based on local conditions and the request and customization requested by theclient.
7) Before your booking is confirmed and a contract comes into force, we reserve the right to increase or decrease quoted prices. This is based typically on elements where prices fluxuate, such as hotel market-based inflation in peak season Thailand or Japan, or airline tickets where promotions and discounts are based on limited availability.
In such cases, we reserve the right to pass on any extra costs incurred. You have the right to withdraw from the booking at this stage if you do not accept the price revision. The contract will exist when you have accepted or not objected to any price revision and we have issued a confirmation invoice.
We reserve the right to impose surcharges once you have booked but no surcharges will be imposed within 30 days of departure and any downward revision in the price will be refunded to you. Surcharges will only be imposed for variations in:
- Transport costs, including the cost of fuel.
b)force majeure which cause itineraries to need expedited and immediate revision.
c) the exchange rates applied to the booking.
In any event, we shall absorb any such surcharge up to 3% of the original holiday cost. Any increase to the price which exceeds 11% of the total holiday cost will entitle you to the options outlined in clause 6 above.
8) All itineraries will list clearly what is and is not included in your holiday. We will notify you promptly of any changes that need to be made and discuss them with you to decide the next course of action.
Once you’ve paid your initial deposit, we will send your ‘final itinerary’ which is a document stating at that date all confirmations made and pending on your behalf. At this point, if you feel you have misunderstood what is included in the price, or the nature of the holiday, you may cancel your booking without penalty and we will refund any money paid to us (except for initial deposits, if any).
Such cancellations will only be allowed during the week following our sending the confirmation voucher to you, and will not be allowed if your booking is made less than 8 weeks before departur. The information and conditions relating to your holiday (and extensions/options where applicable) contained in the confirmation voucher will be deemed to be part of the contract, and you should, therefore, read them carefully.
Should there be a discrepancy between the information on the website or any other publication and the confirmation voucher, the information in the confirmation voucher supersedes any other published information and will be considered the most up-to-date and accurate.
9) Any information or advice provided by Asia Art Tours Ltd on matters such as permits, visas, vaccinations, climate, clothing, baggage, special equipment, etc. is given in good faith but without responsibility on the part of Asia Art Tours.
The passenger accepts responsibility for obtaining any necessary visas and travel documents required for the holiday. As well as insuring their travel documents are both up to date, valid for the length of their holiday and viable for the countries visited.
10) If any significant changes to the holiday have to be made before departure, we undertake to inform you, and you are entitled to the options detailed in clause 6 above. A ‘significant change’ does not include a change of airline, type of car used, train used or named accommodation if force majeure causes any of these to be unavailable.
11) Your booking is accepted on the understanding that you realize the inherent hazards and annoyances involved in this kind of holiday, including injury, disease, loss or damage to property, inconvenience, delays, and discomfort due to traveling in significantly different cultural surroundings.We strongly urge you to both consult with your local medical professionals, insurance company prior to traveling. We also strongly urge you to obtain travel insurance suitable for your health needs prior to traveling. Changes in itinerary may be caused by local political conditions, flight cancellations, mechanical breakdown, weather, border restrictions, sickness, or other force majeure circumstances. Refunds will be given for services not utilized wherever possible at Asia Art Tours discretion.
It is a fundamental condition of joining any of the holidays that you accept this flexibility, and acknowledge that delays and alterations and their results, such as inconvenience, discomfort, or disappointment,differences in artistic perspectives, or force majeure, are possible: we will always endeavor to make sure it is your ideally realized holiday that matches your expectations of comfort and enjoyment. If it is impossible to make alternative arrangements or if a passenger is unable, or does not choose for good reason, to complete an itinerary outlined for a holiday, Asia Art Tours is not liable to supply alternative itineraries, excursions, accommodations, services or staff for the period when the client is not present with the group, but in these circumstances we will arrange transport back to your point of departure if you wish.
12) On any Asia holiday, making a deposit payment signifies your agreement to obey the laws and regulations of the host country, and if you commit any illegal act when on the holiday or if in the reasonable opinion of the leader or guide your behavior is causing or likely to cause danger, distress or harrassment to others we may terminate your travel arrangements without any liability on our part. If you are affected by any condition, allergy or phobia, medical or otherwise, that might affect your or other people’s enjoyment of the holiday you must advise us of this at the time of booking or risk immediate termination of your travel arrangements without any liability on our part.
13) Before you come on the holiday you must be covered by insurance either via an extended network from your home countries insurance or by purchasing travel insurance. This is upon the traveler to purchase and is a responsibility completely separate form Asia Art Tours: we do not provide insurance. This insurance should include adequate cover for baggage and must incluce medical expenses and the cost of repatriation, should you become too ill to continue, including helicopter rescue and air ambulance. If you join the holiday without adequate insurance you may not be allowed to continue on the holiday, with no right of refund. Should you arrive in country with no insurance, Asia Art Tours bears no responsibility for providing medical coverage nor repatriation, these must be covered by an outside insurance policy purchased by you and covering yourself and your travel members. There are numerous insurance companies for travel and we are happy to refer you.
14) Our responsibility does not commence until the appointed time and place in Asia as stipulated by the arrival time in your confirmed itinerary. We shall not be responsible for any additional expenses incurred by you to meet up on time and at the designated place as stipulated in the Confirmation itinerary. Should you be unable to arrive on time for the start of the scheduled tour you must inform us at the latest 24 hours before your new arrival time. Though of course flight delays do occur and we understand you may not be able to arrive (within +/-12 hours) of your original date and time of arrival. We will endeavor to resume the scheduled trips as per the Confirmed itinerary and we will charge any necessary additional local costs accordingly as per prior clauses. We reserve the right to cancel all further holiday arrangements if no contact has been made with us within 24 hrs after the scheduled arrival time.
15) If you have any complaint about the holiday, you must make it known at the earliest opportunity to the guide and/or our local representative while traveling locally in Asia. They will then take appropriate action to see if locally made amendments address your concerns. If you are not satisfied with their response and you feel your enjoyment of the holiday is likely to be significantly affected, you should notify Asia Art Tours as soon as possible, and we will do our best to resolve the problem in an expedited fashion based on the complexity of the problem. If at the end of the holiday, you feel your complaint has not been properly dealt with, we shall try and agree a settlement with you, but you must first notify us of your complaint in writing or via email with electronic signature within 30 days of your scheduled date of return. Please note we only deal with complaints via letter, telephone or email, and not in person. Please note telephone complaints must be accompanied by a written complaint with signature in order to be addressed.
16) We are responsible to you for our obligations under the contract irrespective of whether those obligations are provided directly by us, or by third party service providers engaged by us acting within the proper course of their employment. We are liable to you for any damage caused to you by our failure to perform the contract or by our improper performance of the contract, unless that failure is:
a) attributable to you;
b) attributable to a third party unconnected with the provision of the services and are unforeseeable or unavoidable;
c) due to unusual and unforeseeable circumstances beyond our control and could not have been avoided even if all due care had been taken
d) due to an event which even with all due care we could not foresee or forestall
17) In any event, you are strongly advised to insure yourself against any possible risk that may occur and in particular to ensure that you have sufficient insurance in respect of yourself and fellow travelers. You are required to carry proof of insurance with you and produce it if reasonably requested by Asia Art Tours employees or suppliers or third parties who are part of your itnerary. Except in instances of personal injury or death, where Asia Art Tours is found to be liable for damages in respect of its failure to carry out the contract, the maximum amount of such damages, compensation and loss of enjoyment will normally, but not necessarily, be limited to two times the basic holiday price shown on the invoice.
Where the damages relate to the provision of transport by air, sea or rail, or hotel accommodation, any compensation payable will be further limited by the EU Charter of Passengers Rights, the Warsaw Convention as amended by the Hague Protocol (air), the Athens Convention 1974 (sea), the Berne Convention 1961 (rail), and the Paris Convention 1962 (hotel accommodation), or any such statute or regulation as may from time to time amend or supersede any of the above. Copies of the conditions of carriage and any conventions which may apply are available on request. Any independent arrangement that you make which is not part of the holiday are entirely at your own risk.
You must comply with the conditions of carriage applied by land, sea and air carriers. The provisions
of the Warsaw Convention 1929 (as amended) concerning the carriage of passengers and their luggage by air, and the airlines’ conditions of carriage, may apply to you and your party during your flight, and during boarding and disembarkation. These provisions and conditions may limit or exclude liability for death or personal injury, or loss of or damage to luggage, and may make special
provisions for valuables. We will supply a copy of the conditions of carriage applicable to your holiday, and of the Warsaw Convention, if you request them.
In the case of sea travel the provisions of the Athens Convention 1974 relating to the carriage of passengers and their luggage by sea may apply. This Convention and the sea carriers’ conditions of carriage may continue to apply to you and your party throughout your stay on board the ship, and during boarding and disembarkation. The Athens Convention, and the carriers’ conditions of carriage, may limit or exclude liability for death or personal injury, or loss of or damage to luggage, and make special provisions for valuables. A copy of the conditions of carriage applicable to your holiday, and the Athens Convention referred to above, can be supplied on request.
18) Any flights forming part of the holiday arrangements are subject to the conditions of the carrying airline and not Asia Art Tours, which in most cases limit the airline’s liability to the passenger in accordance with International Law and conventions. Copies of the conditions of carriage and any conventions which may apply are available on request.
19) To ensure that your holiday runs smoothly, and to make required bookings, we need to use information such as your name and passport information, special needs, dietary requirements etc. We will apply appropriate security measures to protect this data. However, we must pass it to suppliers of your travel arrangements including airlines, hotels and transport companies. We may also supply it to security and to public authorities such as customs and immigration or Public Security Bureau. We will only pass data, including sensitive information regarding disabilities or dietary and religious requirements, to people responsible for your holiday arrangements. If we cannot pass this information to the relevant suppliers, we cannot provide your booking. When you make this booking, you consent to this information being passed to the relevant people. We can supply a copy of your information held by us; there is a small charge for providing this.
20) The booking conditions may only be waived or amended by written mutual consent. When you complete the booking form you agree to accept all these conditions, and when we accept your booking we agree to carry out our obligations to you as defined in this brochure and other information provided to you.