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Permalink Reply by Brāv on November 3, 2014 at 10:27am

The issue appears to be how to increase "adequate coordination." The third party neutral will have to have a vested interest and/or pride in mediation work. We can increase both through incentives, consistently reaching out to mediators and seeking out those who have a passion in ADR. 

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Permalink Reply by MARIA VICTORIA MARUN on November 3, 2014 at 1:58pm

I think that  tne distance is a real problen in this kind of situation and the ODR process is  effective, and certain in order to get a solution. A Very interesting topic

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Permalink Reply by Anita Vestal on November 3, 2014 at 2:03pm

Brilliant suggestion. I witnessed an unfortunate misunderstanding at an airport in Costa Rica. Apparently some tourists had hired a guide for the day and the guide hired a driver. There was a misunderstanding about the fee. The guide quoted a fee but did not include the driver's fee. The tourists paid the guide's fee, but did not think they owed the driver as they assumed his fee was included with the fee the guide quoted for the day. As the tourists were rushing to catch their plane home, they were stopped by airport police and questioned briefly and allowed to proceed to their plane. As they continued on into the airport, I could see the anguish on the face of the driver who did not get compensated for his time and gas due to communication barriers. Distance mediation could have helped in this situation.

My question is this: how would the tourists and local tour guides know such a service exists for them?

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Permalink Reply by Brāv on November 3, 2014 at 2:20pm

Interesting story! That is a case I would love to have resolved. Regarding your question, marketing is key. Take a look at our video at brav.org; we have to push that out there on a global level so that people are aware of their options!

Anita Vestal said:

Brilliant suggestion. I witnessed an unfortunate misunderstanding at an airport in Costa Rica. Apparently some tourists had hired a guide for the day and the guide hired a driver. There was a misunderstanding about the fee. The guide quoted a fee but did not include the driver's fee. The tourists paid the guide's fee, but did not think they owed the driver as they assumed his fee was included with the fee the guide quoted for the day. As the tourists were rushing to catch their plane home, they were stopped by airport police and questioned briefly and allowed to proceed to their plane. As they continued on into the airport, I could see the anguish on the face of the driver who did not get compensated for his time and gas due to communication barriers. Distance mediation could have helped in this situation.

My question is this: how would the tourists and local tour guides know such a service exists for them?

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Permalink Reply by Sandra M. Untrojb on November 3, 2014 at 8:39pm

Hi everybody!!

Thanks for participating.

International travel can generate different types of conflicts:
1- between travelers and hotels services
2- between travelers and tour services (problems with the guide or the  food)
3- between travelers and travel agency that sold tours and hotel stays

Some of the main problems with the services provided by hotels can be:

- Poor service breakfast: little choice, lack of products on the tables

Small rooms, not very clean, does not the air conditioning or heating, uncomfortable mattresses

I think these issues could be resolved with Rad  distance methods. Do you agree? While occurring or after the completion of the travel

In my opinion, especially if the hotel stay lasts several days, it is possible that the use of a DISTANCE Mediation can help resolve these conflicts

What do you think?

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Permalink Reply by Sandra M. Untrojb on November 4, 2014 at 4:42am

On tour rides, conflicts could be generated  for breach of bus schedules, travelers arriving late and bus  waits for them, no place for two people traveling together to sit together because individual travelers are dealing with a double seat, walking tours are delayed because they are slowly made ​​for the elderly or families with small children so  visits to some patterned sites are lost.


Do you believe that in a tour that lasts 20 or 30 days, some of these conflicts could be solved with E-MEDIATION? While occurring or after completion of the travel?


If the Agency with which someone  hired the trip fails, could you claim and resolve the conflict during the trip? If the agency with which you hired the trip fails, could you claim after the end of the trip?

Other topic should  be : would it be possible for Travel Agencies and travelers to adhere to  a e- mediation solution system in the moment they contract the travel  to be provided for these situations?

If the journey is performed by a family, when attending the mediation should all membership attend to the Mediation or is it  better  a single representative of the family attends?

In my opinion, all these conflicts generated with  travel services, could be solved by  Remote  RAD methods.  What are your opinions? Regards,

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Permalink Reply by Brāv on November 4, 2014 at 12:25pm

"Do you believe that in a tour that lasts 20 or 30 days, some of these conflicts could be solved with E-MEDIATION? While occurring or after completion of the travel?"

Why not? If all parties agree to come up with a resolution that they all could live with, then a conflict could feasibly be resolved within the time stated. 

The issue is getting everyone acclimated to this new way of dealing with conflicts. To often we see people dismiss issues that actually build up and ultimately get out of hand and/or simply leave bitter memories for everyone when they could have been raised and potentially solved.

Good question.

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Permalink Reply by Anh Pham on November 6, 2014 at 11:34am

Communication challenges that arise while traveling to foreign country can strike as a serious problem to international travelers, and makes a fun vacation an arduous journey. Moreover, you can’t afford or locate an on-site translator all the time. Many people have suggested the assistance of distance mediators; however, I don’t think they are effective in situations where language barriers are a problem. I think it is more efficient to equip yourself with mobile text recognition and translation applications. Now all iPhone and Android have recognition applications, and you can utilize the commercial version of one of the mobile text scanning translators to scan the language. These tools are not a huge investment, and can aid you at all times you run into difficulties and need a little help making yourself understood.

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Permalink Reply by Sandra M. Untrojb on November 6, 2014 at 8:59pm

Hello everybody

Thank you very much for participating!!

As tomorrow is the last day of the Cyberweek I think it  would be a good opportunity for us to start writing the conclusions we reached on the issue raised in the Forum

Those who want to write some conclusions can start doing it , so that tomorrow afternoon  we could prepare a final
summary

Regards

 

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Permalink Reply by Daneis Barber on November 7, 2014 at 2:48pm

I tend to agree with Anh. Having traveled out of the country this summer for a study abroad in Germany, I found myself having issues communicating with some people in Germany and a lot of people in Poland. Communication made it a serious problem in trying to get what you want or need. It made traveling in the cities that I went to that much more difficult as well.

When there are very few people that may speak a certain language in that area, it makes it very difficult to get someone that can help translate and also help with resolving a dispute. While doing a distance dispute resolution may be a good alternative, this may prove difficult as well. The time difference between two areas (such as the East Coast or Midwest in the United States and Germany or Poland) may be very substantial. The international traveler would probably feel most comfortable with someone from their country, or even the region their country is in. This would help ease the tension of the international traveler, which would also help the mediator. If the international traveler is already upset from the dispute, it might be smarter to find someone that is fluent in their native tongue to help solve the dispute. However, if they get someone from their country or region, the time difference would make this difficult as well. With everything becoming more available around the clock, it would make this problem easier, but a lot of countries have not followed the American phenomenon of around the clock service.

Another issue discussed by Anh was the availability of apps on smartphones. However, this could also be an issue. Most apps require some sort of connection to cellular data or internet wi-fi. This can prove to be difficult. While abroad, I did not have a sim card that would allow me to use any cellular services in the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, or Poland. Many of my apps, including my translation app would not work without internet connection. Unlike the US, wi-fi is not as readily available in these other countries. This would fall back on trying to get another person to resolve the dispute, which ends up going back into the problems I discussed above. This seems to be a vicious circle, but there is some way to help the international traveler when they are abroad and a dispute happens.

Anh Pham said:

Communication challenges that arise while traveling to foreign country can strike as a serious problem to international travelers, and makes a fun vacation an arduous journey. Moreover, you can’t afford or locate an on-site translator all the time. Many people have suggested the assistance of distance mediators; however, I don’t think they are effective in situations where language barriers are a problem. I think it is more efficient to equip yourself with mobile text recognition and translation applications. Now all iPhone and Android have recognition applications, and you can utilize the commercial version of one of the mobile text scanning translators to scan the language. These tools are not a huge investment, and can aid you at all times you run into difficulties and need a little help making yourself understood.

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Permalink Reply by Sandra M. Untrojb on November 7, 2014 at 7:59pm

Hello everyone ,

Firstly deeply appreciate all the shares.  I would like to comment  with you a publication of today's which mentions that ... ......one of the methodologies job at NASA was to convene a group of people from around the world and with diverse profiles ( biomedical engineers , social entrepreneurs, molecular scientists , etc.) , and show exponential technologies for application to solve global challenges ...... In short , combining people, technologies and challenges to create new social
 impact projects ... ..I believe  we have done it this Cybeweek 2014

Greetings from Argentina !!

Sandra 

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Permalink Reply by Boan Sianipar on November 7, 2014 at 9:39pm

Hi Sandra,

 

This is a very interesting topic of resolving disputes in international tourism. You mentioned a couple times that mediation could be done during or after the completion of the travel. My question is how is that can be done? A 20-30 day tour is quite a long time, and mediation may be worth it. But for people who travel for a short period, 7-10 days, may likely think that the hassle of mediation during the travel is not worth it. As for mediation after the travel, I'm guessing most resolutions would come to a financial compromise (if any) of a refund or something similar, however if mediation is done after, wouldn't the travel industry be losing money on their profit margins when mediating and resolving potentially hundreds of disputes?

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