Suspicious tourist companies are selling tickets to Danish attractions. But the prices are four times as high.
When DR got hold of a suspected mastermind, a verbal tirade awaited.
On GetYourGuide, you can get a ticket to Cisternerne in Søndermarken three times as expensive. Cisternerne is an underground art gallery in Frederiksberg. (Photo: © Per Lange, Ritzau Scanpix)
By August Olaf Jersild ( [email protected] ) 27 minutes ago
You should be cautious if, as a tourist or culture enthusiast, you browse for activities on the website GetYourGuide.
Because on the German marketplace platform, where tickets for activities and excursions are posted by companies or local organizers, you can end up paying three to four times as much for entrance tickets to Danish museums – without getting anything extra.
This can happen, for example, with the Frederiksberg Museums, which run the Storm P. Museum – also called Storm – and Cisternerne. Here, an entrance ticket to Cisternerne is sold for 374 kroner.
On the Frederiksberg Museums' website, the same ticket costs 120 kroner.
GetYourGuide also sells entrance tickets to the Storm P. Museum for 337 kroner. The price is 75 kroner on the museum's website.
This is what it looks like if you want to buy tickets to the museum 'Storm' on GetYourGuide. (Photo: © Screenshot)
The Frederiksberg Museums were not aware that tickets to their museums were being sold on the platform. After DR's inquiry, they have referred the matter to their lawyer.
This is stated by Siw Aldershvile Nielsen, Head of Communications and Audiences for the Frederiksberg Museums, in a written response, where it says they take the matter very seriously.
- In this connection, we wish to emphasize that we have in no way entered into a collaboration with the platform in question.
- We urge all our guests to check ticket prices via our website and refrain from using the platform in question.
It is 'Deborah’s Travel Diaries' that is listed as the activity provider. The company's legal name is given as Deborah Asenath Makokha and has an address in the East African country of Kenya.
The company writes in a response to DR that both listings have been removed and will not be offered again.
- My understanding at the time was that it was an acceptable solution to purchase official entrance tickets directly from the museums and make them available for international visitors via GetYourGuide, writes Deborah’s Travel Diaries.
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Feels exploited
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DR has previously described how fake tickets are offered on GetYourGuide's website (https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/indland/det-er-gratis-besoege-alligevel-saelger-mystisk-turisthjemmeside-entrebilletter-til-dyrehaven). For example, you could buy entrance tickets to Jægerborg Dyrehave and Christiania – two places that are both free to visit.
Here, a company with an address in Georgia called 'iziguide' is behind it. The activities and the company have since disappeared from GetYourGuide's website.
But it wasn't just entrance tickets that 'iziguide' offered – but also whiskey tasting and a guided tour at Stauning Whisky in Skjern, West Jutland.
Much to the surprise of the distillery's director, Lasse Vesterby.
- We don't have a profile on GetYourGuide, and we don't have a collaboration that way.
- So unfortunately, it's another platform or company that is simply exploiting our name and brand and then trying to trick money out of people, he says.
This is what it looked like when 'iziguide' offered tickets on GetYourGuide for Stauning Whisky. (Photo: © Screenshot)
You can book a tour at Stauning Whisky with whiskey tasting at the distillery itself. It costs 110 kroner.
A somewhat cheaper price than what it was sold for on GetYourGuide. There, the price was 480 kroner.
- We had a guest last Saturday who had actually booked through GetYourGuide, and he was in our system.
- It suggests that 'iziguide' goes onto our website and actually books a ticket for this person, says Lasse Vesterby.
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'You are a rat'
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DR has previously reached out to 'iziguide' regarding the entrance tickets for Dyrehaven and Christiania.
There, a written response stated that a significant portion of the company's "annual turnover goes to supporting nature conservation funds and funds associated with Christiania."
Since then, however, DR has received a phone call from a suspected mastermind from the company 'iziguide'.
In the call, a man claims he is the father of an Isabella who runs 'iziguide'. And she has become very upset by DR's inquiries, he says.
- Has she done anything wrong? You know nothing. You are a rat. Fuck your mother and your family. If you want to fight me, I am in Istanbul.
- She hasn't done anything wrong, and she has been crying all day because of you, the man said, among other things.
You can hear an excerpt of the call here.
GetYourGuide states in a written response to DR News that "it is not acceptable to sell tickets to publicly accessible areas where there is free admission, and it does not belong on GetYourGuide."
The platform has therefore deactivated the 'iziguide' account, and people who have bought tickets will get their money refunded, it is stated.
GetYourGuide will now also review their approval process so that similar incidents do not happen.
DR has also inquired about the high entrance prices for the Frederiksberg Museums, but GetYourGuide has not yet responded to those questions.
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Warning: This article was translated by a Large Language Model, in case of doubt, you can always visit the original source.