THE CHAMPION OF UNFAIR COMPETITION IN CHORNOBYL TOURISM
THE CHAMPION OF UNFAIR COMPETITION IN CHORNOBYL TOURISM
Some time ago we discovered that CHORNOBYL TOUR and several other Chernobyl tour-operators had been libeled at the website, designed specifically for this purpose, most probably, by our unfair competitor (see below). Upon our substantiated request, this libelous site was closed. Unfortunately, recently the site, with "update” of its "info”, was reopened at different hosting, and started been advertised via Google AdWords again.
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Our Ukrainian and foreign partners have recently drawn our attention to some website, which, under the guise of advising future Chornobyl tourists, vilifies CHORNOBYL TOUR and vast number of other Ukrainian tour-companies – and, by doing so, harms the image of Ukrainian tourism in general.
We decided to sanitize this situation.
Let us cast an attentive look at the site mychernobyl.com. It consists of just one-and-only webpage (the screenshot attached). In it, some ‘Philipe’, calling himself an ‘expert’, advices potential Chernobyl tourists how to choose tour operators for the trip (making a mistake in the word: ‘to chose’). He very insistently puts them off from ‘fake/shady so-called ‘operators’. Who are they?
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But no, the ‘expert’ resolutely oversees all mentioned above, and calls us a ‘scam, a fake company”.
He falsely claims we do not have a tour-operator license (we welcome him to our office on 11 Andriivsky descent in Kyiv to have a look at the license), irrelevantly blames us for providing non-existent addresses of our offices (they do don’t exist, since they are not even mentioned on our site), and provides other ‘arguments’ of the same level of (no-)quality and (no-)reliability.
He most reluctantly acknowledges our tour’s leadership among all Chornobyl tours at TripAdvisor, but attributes our success to the website moderator’s tricks. In fact, TripAdvisor has strict policy of "information hygiene”, and upon receipt of complaints, if they are justified, it promptly cleanses itself from irrelevant, unreliable and libelous reviews. Interestingly, ‘Philipe’ apparently knows about such episodes in regard to CHORNOBYL TOUR, follows them closely and tells about the pseudo-reviews’ deletion with sorrow.
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Then the ‘expert’ soils other Chornobyl tour-companies, though does it with much less zeal. There transpires a very peculiar regularity: the more important is the company the more negative is its presented image. In the process, ‘Philipe’ discusses personality of a company founder and demonstrates insider knowledge of the business of Chernobyl tourism. One can assume that the site was done by one of Chornobyl tour-operators for the purpose of unfair competition. This suspicion is reinforced by two facts (see the screenshot): (1) in Google search, the webpage’s name appears as ‘Don’t book Chernobyl Tour’, and (2) the page has paid advertisement campaign at AdWords, hence it definitely should have some financial goals.
Who could be the author of this web-defamation? Who could benefit from it? The ‘expert Philipe’ helps to answer those questions himself, recommending, on the very same page, to whom the prospective tourists should apply. According to him, there are just three ‘good guys’.
Item No 3 in this list is a company from Odesa, Ukraine, for which the tours to Chornobyl are just ‘side trips’ (see travel-2-ukraine.com); indeed, praising it, ‘Philipe’ focuses on its other, non-Chornobyl destinations. It is obvious that this company is no serious competitor in the tourism to Chernobyl, and praising it will cause no harm.
The first and most remarkable place in the list is given to British travel agency Lupine Travel www.lupinetravel.co.uk, which organizes tours all over the world. For this company, Chornobyl as just one of its many destinations, obviously not worth such a dishonest action. Not to say that hardly will native speakers make a mistake in the verb ‘to choose’.
Inconspicuously, the second place is given to a Ukrainian company SoloEast Travel – www.tourkiev.com. ‘Expert Philipe’ talks about this company at length, in detail, lovingly: «…believed to handle most of the English speaking tours to Chernobyl… They accept credit cards… Discounts for…» and so on. Total eulogy – and in the right address, since it is the only company in the list that has Chornobyl tours as its main, primary objective.
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It is worth mentioning that the buses of ‘Solo East’ (at the photo) bear not only this company’s logo but also the logo of ‘Lupine Travel’, also praised in the list (see above). That is, ‘Lupine Travel’ run Chernobyl tours jointly with ‘Solo East’, and praising the former brings benefits to the latter.
Comparison of DNS address of ‘expert Philipe’’s website mychernobyl.com with that of ‘Solo East’ site tourkiev.com gives an amazing result: the two DNS are identical! It means that the tour- misinformation ‘expert’’s website and the Chernobyl tour operator’s website are hosted by the same provider. Just imagine, there are millions of providers in the world, but all of a sudden, by a pure coincidence, the owners of the two sites above have chosen one and the same provider.
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This analysis prompts obvious conclusions.
 Tour operator license - CHORNOBYL TOUR (CHERNOBYL TOUR) |
| LICENSE Ministry of economy and trade of Ukraine Decision number and date of adoption – No532, March 29, 2016 The domain of economic activity – tourism (inbound and outbound) Name of the business entity – CHORNOBYL TOUR Ltd. Code number of the business entity – 40295809 Location of the business entity – unit 68, 11 Andriyivsky descent, Kyiv 04070 |
UPDATE 2017-04-05:
The new site was supplemented with a misinforming "update”, regarding which we are to state the following:
- our phones in Australia, Poland, USA and UK are valid and operating, as everyone can check by simply calling them;
- our license, issued by the Ministry of economy and trade of Ukraine by decision No532 on March 29, 2016 is a valid one, and CHORNOBYL TOUR is a highly respected member of Ukrainian tour-business community, participates in international tour fairs and exhibitions in Berlin, London, Warsaw and Kiev, national tour-business workshops and activities etc. Characteristically, the unfair competitor copied our license (with the date and No of registration, as a matter of fact) from the CHORNOBYL TOUR site page … then cut away its bottom with the official seal and signature, – and put this fake, doctored image at the libelous site as a proof of their false claims! An excellent example of the competitor’s integrity, honesty and fairness!
CHORNOBYL TOUR will take resolute legal actions to eliminate the false information from the Internet, firmly establish the organizers of this defamation and penalize them.