[Anchor]

Early last month, a travel agency well-known for youth educational tours abruptly suspended its operations, citing a police investigation. Thousands of customers who had already paid their fees entirely in cash have now launched a class-action lawsuit, demanding refunds.

Reporter Yoo Soo-Hwan has the story.

[Anchor]

Son Bong-seok booked a European trip for this month and a U.S. trip for February of next year through the travel agency Andersen back in June of last year.

Having already wired all costs, including tour expenses, to the agency, he received shocking news on the 5th of last month.

The travel agency suddenly announced the suspension of its operations through a notice on its website.

The notice stated that it was "halting all tours" due to a police raid on its offices.

Police revealed that they are indeed investigating ties between the travel agency and current and former officials of the Minjung Democracy Party who were indicted for violations of the National Security Act.

[Son Bong-seok / Andersen Travel Agency Victim: In my case, when I calculate it, the damage comes out to about 17 million won. They say a raid was conducted because of political issues, but why should I be dragged into that political fight?]

According to a self-compiled tally by the victims, the number of affected individuals is approximately 9,000, with total damages exceeding 29.5 billion won.

The scale of the damage grew as the agency sold products requiring customers to pay in cash a year in advance in exchange for discounts.

[Andersen Travel Agency Victim: My child is an elementary school student, and the child was so excited. Despite our difficult financial situation, we booked it because we wanted to go to France together with our child...]

Damages varied widely, ranging from cases where travelers were already on their trips only to have their itineraries cut short locally and forced to shoulder extra expenses before returning, to cases where cancellations were notified at the airport right before departure.

[Son Bong-seok / Andersen Travel Agency Victim: They were at Incheon Airport eating when they received a text notification. They were told tomorrow's trip was canceled, and it was so difficult to break the news to the children.]

While the agency has been notifying customers that it will "normalize operations in two years" and "transfer advance payments to other travel products," victims are demanding immediate refunds and preparing to file a class-action lawsuit.

(Video Reporting: Lee Chan-soo, Video Editing: Lee Hong-myung)