It was reported on Wednesday how a 68-year-old cleaner, Madam Teo Ino Meo had to forgo her one week trip to Hokkaido with her friends after a local travel agency, Sky Travel & Tours Pte Ltd sent messages to its costumers on Tuesday afternoon, stating that the company had shuttered and that its services would cease immediately.
Lianhe Zaobao had earlier quoted Mdm Teo saying that they could not contact the tour agency and had paid the travel fees in full. The part-time cleaner who earns $250 a month said that she used money from her pay for the tour.
Mdm Teo along with two of her friends had signed up for a 7D5N tour to Hokkaido worth $2327 and paid $500 as deposit in August during a travel fair. Only about two weeks ago, they went to the agent and paid the balance.
On Wednesday, three of them were pacing in front of the non-defunct shop for a few hours and only left after a call was made to Desmond Lim, the 98.8FM DJ who were supposed to join them on the tour, consoled them for their loss.
In light of the news, SCOOT, a budget airline along with Klook, a travel agency decided to come together to offer Mdm Teo a second chance in realising her travel plans.
Klook regional marketing lead Marcus Yong, 29, was quoted to have said: “This is the festive peak travel season where everyone is going away and to have one’s holiday taken away from you like that just isn’t right.”
The post which was posted by Klook on Wednesday evening, wrote,
How can we let a fellow traveller, especially one in yellow, miss out on her chance to escape the ordinary!
We’ll #helpmadamteo and her friend, Madam Beh, Scoot to Hokkaido with an extra Klook surprise!
Re-share this post to help us find Auntie and her friend so that they can go on a holiday.
For the rest of the group mates, private message us for a special deal. Steady lah
Local Facebook page, SGAG joined in the search for Mdm Teo and helped to viral the post on social media.
The post was subsequently updated on Thursday afternoon to state that Mdm Teo was found and the agencies will contact her for the trip to Hokkaido.
Today quoted Mdm Teo on her response to the offer: “I am happy that they are also offering the trip to one of my friends, otherwise, I would not want to go on the trip alone.”
So the company kicked off a Facebook campaign on Wednesday evening to “find Mdm Teo” to give her a “surprise”. The post was shared almost 5,000 shares with the help of local humour site SGAG. Klook tracked down Mdm Teo by 10.30am on Thursday.
A Scoot spokesman said: “We were heartened by Madam Teo’s hard work in saving up for months to travel to Hokkaido together with her friend, Madam Beh. We were therefore excited to come on board when Klook approached us to fly her to Hokkaido to realise her dream of enjoying a well-deserved vacation there.”
Mdm Teo will be meeting Klook on Friday to make travel arrangements for her trip with one of her friend, Mdm Beh, who had used savings from her allowance from children to pay for the tour. She hopes that the agencies will consider sponsoring the other friend who was supposed to join them on the trip to Hokkaido as well.
Scoot is also offering a 20 per cent discount on flights to Hokkaido to those registered on the same tour as Mdm Teo. The promotional code SUREFLY is valid till Dec 11.