Purple Dragon out of business

[fedssocr]

Saw the news this morning on Douglas Thompson's blog that Purple Dragon travel agency has been forced out of business. Very sad. I've taken many, many trips with them over the past dozen years or so, including my recent trip to Vietnam. It's a shame for the folks working in their office as well as their excellent guides and drivers everywhere around the region. I traveled with them to Thailand a few times (especially my first few visits when I didn't know how to get around on my own or when I was going to some out of the way places), Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Hong Kong... Most of the trips were great experiences and I definitely got to see a number of places I never would have been able to get to on my own or that would have required me to do a lot of planning and legwork.

[vinapu]

3 hours ago, fedssocr said:

......that would have required me to do a lot of planning and legwork.

often that part is as exciting and rewarding as trip itself

[NIrishGuy]

Sad news for him.

[PeterRS]

I read this with mixed views. In the early days before the arrest and imprisonment of his two partners when the company was named Utopia Tours and was based in the Tarntawan Hotel, I took a tour to Luang Prabang. All the details were excellent. I stayed in a lovely guesthouse by the river run by a gay Lao architect who had just returned after many years in Australia. The night tour with a cute guide was less interesting, perhaps because the eye candy and availability of young men in those days meant visiting the few gayish venues was not necessary to find company. The next year I took their tour to Phnom Penh. I have to add that the regular day guides with me on both tours were quite boring even though their local knowledge was obviously excellent. 

After the company was suspended due to the legal issues involving the partners, I contributed 5000 baht to the legal defence fund. When it finally got going again, I had started just making my own tour arrangements. I also realised their prices, particularly for hotels, were higher than I could get by booking on my own. 

Until I read the blog link, I had not realised Purple Dragon was a founder of the Bangkok Gay Pride. Sadly that was never going to work. I attended a couple of their Pride Parades. Far too commercial and virtually the only marchers were bar boys and ladyboys. Bangkok was not ready for a Pride Parade then. There were reports early last year of the Parade being revived lat November. That was then postponed because pf the proximity to the late Kings cremation. That idea now seems dead.

The blog makes for dismal reading, despite its more upbeat tone at the end. I feel very sorry for those of his customers who have lost cash due to the company going out of business. I hope every traveller in future heeds his advice by making sure they have travel insurance. But one really has to question his choice of partners, the first two ending up being deported and, like the next one, leaving the till empty! To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, to lose one partner may be regarded as misfortune , to lose both looks like carelessness!

Frivolity aside, I wish him better luck in his new life.

[fedssocr]

It seems the Utopia guys really got railroaded, so I'm not sure I would say that was his fault.

The lack of capitalization seems to have been the biggest problem. I doubt many of us traveling with them through the years realized how close to the edge things were. The fact that some one paying for a trip in a few months was paying for the trip of some one traveling this week seems quite risky from a business standpoint and eventually it couldn't be sustained.

As I said, most of my trips with them were very good. Since I was traveling solo it was always nice to have a guide and personal driver. While many of the vehicles were rather long in the tooth, on the whole the guides were good for me. As with anything in this sort of realm, personalities and chemistry are important especially on longer trips. I never minded that it was costing a bit more than I could have paid if I'd arranged it all myself. 

it looks like he's landed on his feet with a nice place in Siem Reap.

[PeterRS]

2 hours ago, fedssocr said:

The fact that some one paying for a trip in a few months was paying for the trip of some one traveling this week seems quite risky from a business standpoint and eventually it couldn't be sustained.

It certainly seems that the lack of a positive cash flow was a major contribution in the companys demise. I have a friend who works in Europe as an agent in the music business. Sometimes when he "sells' an artist, part or all of the fee is paid up front, usually many months in advance but it can be over a year. Others have their fees remitted to his agency by promoters immediately after the concerts. In tough times, he has told me it was extremely tempting to try and use some of the advance payments. But there is a law making it essential that agents ring fence all their clients income from general company expenditure. Penalties include jail time. That way his musicians are protected from the sort of problems that seem to beset the travel industry. I would even go so far as to say it also imposes a strong discipline on business owners to ensure they can manage their cash flows. I find it sad that customers who have paid large deposits up front for a holiday have to suffer when a travel business collapses. Sometimes the writing on the wall must surely have been obvious before it gets to that stage.

[Davidsteel99]

Does anyone know who owns the company now that Thompson is gone?

[PeterRS]

It seems it was forced out of business due to major cash flow problems. That probably means there were a lot of debts. With no work from Purple Dragon for months, will their guides still be available? Would anyone actually buy a small niche travel company in that state? Would it not be better to start a new company? I realise the one asset the company will have is a list of past customers. But there were only 5 visitors a day to the website and at least some customers were left with lost deposits. That does not seem the ideal way to restart a specialised gay travel business nowadays.

There are two more issues. Competition from the increasing success of Moses company siamroads. This concentrates on provision of specialist guides and local transport around the region. I expect they would also recommend hotels. Then there is the fact that gay tourism from the traditional western markets has been declining and now overtaken by the new Asian market whose language skills and travel habits will be different. If I was starting up a gay travel company, that is the market I would do all I could to tap.

https://siamroads.com

 

[Davidsteel99]

Interesting the website seems to be up and running. 

[PeterRS]

It may be up but I do not think it is running!  I called its phone number. No reply and no answering service. Click on "Bangkok Office" and you get this message - Error 404 The page you have requested no longer exists or is temporarily unavailable.

My understanding is that domain names on websites are paid for on an annual basis. If true, then I expect Thomson just didnt bother taking it down. If someone had taken it over I am certain he/she would have been in touch with this forum as well as to all on the regular Purple Dragon mailing list to inform them.

As we know, the company went bust owing several customers seemingly quite a lot of cash in lost deposits. I cannot think why anyone would wish to resurrect it when their first job would have to be to pay back those deposits. There is just too much competition out there.

 

[Davidsteel99]

Thanks Peter. Good detective work.

[Guest]

On 6/19/2019 at 3:41 AM, PeterRS said:

There are two more issues. Competition from the increasing success of Moses company siamroads. This concentrates on provision of specialist guides and local transport around the region. I expect they would also recommend hotels. Then there is the fact that gay tourism from the traditional western markets has been declining and now overtaken by the new Asian market whose language skills and travel habits will be different. If I was starting up a gay travel company, that is the market I would do all I could to tap.

https://siamroads.com

 

There is a third issue in that customers can organise their own travel, with hotel bookings via recognised sites and travel advice off various internet sources.     Perhaps for an obscure trip, there might be more convenience in going to a tour operator.   However many trips are not that complicated & they seem unnecessary.

Also, tour operators, like airlines have a habit of going bust.  So it seems wise to make any payments via credit card, so your payments may be protected if the supplier goes bust.   [Depending on laws in your country, I suppose]

 

[fedssocr]

yeah, I think the DIY travel market these days was probably the biggest problem for them. Paying for insurance that covers operator bankruptcy is probably a good idea too.

The guides were essentially freelancers for the most part rather than employees of PD since it's not like they had enough business to keep them all busy all the time. Especially in some of the less popular locations.

I would guess it's likely that the website hosting was paid up for a certain amount of time so it lives on. Douglas probably didn't have much incentive or interest in taking it all down. He's moved to Siem Reap and I think he's still running the Bhutan agency (I believe things work quite a bit differently there - when I went many years ago I was told that the government basically holds the money for your trip in escrow and then pays the tour company at the completion of your trip) and may be helping some old customers organize some trips. He's in a rather large house/compound and plans to rent out the extra bedrooms to long-term guests.

[Davidsteel99]

So I guess he has no concern about the people whose money he took. 

[PeterRS]

No matter what problems he faced, this is one key issue that I trust is at the forefront of his mind as he starts his new life. After all, he wrote this tearjerker in his blog -  

Quote

Besides feeling defeated and humiliated by this unexpeted turn in my life, I do feel that a big burden has been lifted. Running this business single-handedly for the last 16 of our 20 years has taken a toll on me. All of us here have suffered through the epic trial of John and Robert, two failed partnerships, the the suicide of my partner of seven years (after he helped himself to about 235,481 baht from me and the company), a health crisis, accidental lung cancer and brain metastisis, and all of the political crap I have told you about in this blog over the years. 

The fact is that when you run a business single-handedly you set yourself up for a whole host of unexpected events. It is your job to have sufficient financial and other cover to get through these. I know. I once ran a one-man service company. It is not the fault of his customers that his partners were deported or that another partner stole from the company. It is not the fault of the customers that a company he hooked up with went belly-up. It is not the fault of the customers that unfortunately he suffered from health crises. Nor is it the fault of his customers that there were problems with Google. 

He ran the company and as far as his customers were concerned he was ultimately responsible for everything - including not paying back some of them. I hope for their sake that those booking Bhutan trips through his new company have the best travel insurance. With the litany of woes Thomson outlined, I would think twice before booking through any new company run by him. Sorry to say it, but its my money he would be looking after!