Amateur Travel Planner Scam: Hima Voyage

Hi everyone,

I want to share an experience that really knocked the wind out of me and I hope it won’t ruin my long-awaited trip to Japan.

I recently used the services of a travel planner, Hima Voyage, which I found on social media, to organize my family vacation in Japan.

Unfortunately, my experience was extremely disappointing and frustrating, marked by a blatant lack of professionalism.

The major problems appeared when I received the itinerary: the proposed route was completely illogical in relation to the accommodation locations, forcing us to make much longer daily trips than necessary, with duplicate days suggesting a poorly done copy-paste sent to others.

She didn’t take into account the high-traffic days for the places we wanted to visit at all.

No personalized or concrete tips or advice were provided. Most of her “recommendations” were generic copy-pastes you can find anywhere on social media.

Faced with such a lack of optimization and logic, I’m forced—with less than 4 months until the trip—to start from scratch and completely reorganize my trip myself. This service, sold as an organizational aid, turned into a huge waste of time and money (825 euros down the drain).

I feel scammed and deeply disappointed by this service. I strongly recommend being extremely cautious before entrusting your travel plans to any “travel planner” found on social media.

Hi,

This travel planner activity has grown with social media and was amplified by the COVID pandemic. To do this job, no license or financial guarantee is required—unlike professionals—because it’s not regulated. Unfortunately, this means anyone can now set themselves up as a travel planner.

"We don’t sell travel, we sell advice": for dream vacations, should you use a "travel planner"? | TF1 INFO

There’s no doubt some are very competent (I know a few for the US), but like any industry, there are also bad ones. They sell advice, ideas, itineraries, tips, roadbooks, and provide links for you to make your own bookings since they’re not legally allowed to do it for you. All of this should absolutely take into account your preferences, budget, and constraints.

For some time now, there’s been a real debate in the tourism world about this new profession.

Stop-travel-scam: travel planners fight back

Agency vs travel planner: Guillaume Beurdeley clarifies the differences

Stop-arnaque-voyage.fr, a site that critiques certain coaches and travel planners

Post your questions right here in a new thread so we can help you plan your itinerary.

Hi,

Interesting article yesterday about travel planners;

Agency versus Travel Planner: The Tourism Minister’s slick PR move

Hi, I’m a travel planner for Japan (though I only work in the Kyushu region), active on social media, and I "know" this person because I’ve already come across their account. All their content is stolen from others and passed off as their own—already a red flag. Good luck with planning your itinerary (otherwise, there are also some great travel planners on social media—being on there or not isn’t the point, you just need to do your research and choose carefully).