Sinorama, best known for its Chinese tours, has gone bankrupt

CTV Montreal: Sinorama bankrupt The Quebec-based operations of Sinorama travel agency are bankrupt after the company lost its permit due to financial irregularies.

The company best known for popularizing tourism to China has gone bankrupt.

Sinorama, which used to run massive TV advertising campaigns promoting trips to Asia, had already lost its licence to operate in Quebec this summer after the consumer protection agency discovered irregularities in the way it handled its bank accounts.

Sinorama is declaring $13 million in debts, but less than $1 million in assets.

Customers who bought and paid for cancelled trips, however, will all be reimbursed through a special compensation fund.

Many travellers already obtained a refund through their credit card companies, but those who did not can simply file a form available online through the PricewaterhouseCoopers website. The accounting firm was mandated to process the refunds.

“We need to obtain all documents,” explained Christian Bourque, the provisional administrator for Sinorama at PwC. “We need the invoice. We need proof of payment. But in most cases where there's a problem, they will give us proof of payment but we don't have a detailed invoice. We need that because we need to match basically the payment with the details of the invoice.”

A Quebec City travel company called La Quebecoise is set to take over Sinorama’s tour bus operations. The company decided to rehire some of Sinorama's Chinese-speaking workers and take over its routes.  Those operations will continue under the name Dragon Tours.

They officially launch on Sunday.