Focus on the elderly!
Low-priced "routine tour" re-emerges
[Realistic Challenge] As the epidemic enters the normalization stage of prevention and control, many elderly friends plan to travel in the summer, and the low-cost "routine tour" involving elderly consumers also "reappears."
[Response strategy] The cultural and tourism department reminds that elderly friends should consume rationally and report groups cautiously; when shopping, try to choose places that are also open to local citizens, and enhance the awareness of rights protection and certificate retention
Demand for domestic travel is heating up
The elderly are frequently "routines"
Recently, the ban on epidemics in many places has been lifted. In the domestic tourism market, many elderly friends have been cheated by signing up for low-cost "routine tours", and even unexpected situations have occurred.
It is reported that most of these tourism products attract the attention of elderly friends at low prices, and they will generally sell various products to elderly friends during the itinerary, ranging from health care products to houses.
On the whole, there are two types of organizers that have appeared frequently in the market recently: one is a "tourism tour group" organized by a real estate agency; the other is a distributor or distributor of jewelry, luxury goods and health products channels. "Group tour" of agents and sales organizations.
The purpose of such products appearing again in the tourism market is obvious. Under the background of the current recovery of domestic tourism demand, elderly friends are "routines" with low-priced or even free tourism products.
In May of this year, CCTV News criticized Sichuan tourism's "low-price travel" trap by name.
According to online advertisements, "Jiuzhaigou and Huanglong three-day and two-night tours are as low as 100 yuan."
The reporter and his party signed a three-day tour of Huanglong in Jiuzhaigou for 240 yuan per person and signed a contract.
During the itinerary, the tour guide directly announced that he would take everyone shopping and revealed that he had a shopping commission.
This travel agency not only organizes unreasonable low-cost tours, but also publicly talks about getting rebates for shopping, and claims that this is a travel law requirement, obviously distorting the law to mislead tourists.
The media combed and found the following problems: the prices of jade and silverware are very confusing, and non-professionals cannot distinguish the authenticity and actual value; ordinary plant beverages have been fooled into preventing high anti-reactions and sold at high prices, which may cause elderly friends in the future. Health issues.
In June of this year, the "Worker Daily" also reported that the recommended method of low-cost travel has shifted from offline to online.
Many elderly friends sign up to participate in tourism activities through social platforms such as WeChat groups, official accounts, and short videos, and face problems such as lack of protection and easy "routines" by unscrupulous merchants.
Recently, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism has strictly investigated "unreasonable low-priced tours" and other illegal and illegal operations, and announced three batches of special rectification action guidance cases, one of which is unlicensed "live broadcast with goods" travel products.
In the past, most of the unreasonable low-price tours were sold on the streets by distributing small advertisements. Now the "front" is expanded to various social network platforms. The elderly who are young and lack identification experience are the main sources of unreasonable low-cost tours. "Pit steppers".
Various functional departments have sorted out cases of "special price" and "zero group fee" to lure elderly friends: "fitness dance competition" tour, "square dance competition" tour, "red song competition" tour, "government subsidy" tour, and deposits. "Zero group fee" tour, "Zero group fee" tour with supplementary group fee on the way, free tour with purchase of electrical appliances, free tour with recharged shopping card, free tour with membership card, free tour with full shopping, etc.
Case types vary
The core of lobbying is to buy counterfeit goods
Recently, the Xiamen police smashed two low-cost "routine tour" full-chain criminal gangs, arrested 56 suspects, and investigated and dealt with 49 illegal solicitors, forced transactions, and "wild guides".
According to Hong Zhixin, a policeman from the Public Security Brigade of the Huli Branch of the Xiamen Public Security Bureau, the core of the gang's lobbying involved was to fool elderly friends into buying counterfeit goods.
The criminals lied to the elderly friends: clothing products are seized from customs through special channels, and they are absolutely genuine.
The price advantage of these commodities is obvious, so many elderly friends are deceived.
In addition, people in the world often say: "Gold has a price, but jewelry is priceless." Criminals use routines at the sales site to encourage elderly friends to set up the atmosphere. The elderly friends have been fooled without responding for a while.
In addition, many low-cost "routine tours" are basically 5 days and 4 nights. Shopping is arranged and left after purchase. Many elderly friends did not realize that they were cheated at the time, and often found problems after returning home for a few days, such as gold. Fading etc.
Hong Zhixin analyzed the composition of the interests of the two gangs.
Group 1 colluded with travel agencies and taxis to induce tourists to sign "low-cost tours".
Hong Moubi established a commerce company and colluded with the head of the Forbidden City Road business department of a travel agency, as well as some taxi and online ride-hailing drivers.
The travel agency signs a low-cost "one-day tour" contract with the tourists, and the cooperative driver will take the tourists to Zengcuo'an, Huandao Road and other places to play. The high profits of 10 to 20 times, the illegal income is divided among the counterfeit companies, travel agencies, motorcades, and drivers in proportion.
Elderly friends who travel to Xiamen think that they can buy luxury goods at half the price, but in fact, the cost of each of these fake and inferior luxury goods is only tens or hundreds of yuan.
The police seized more than 3,000 pieces of counterfeit luxury goods such as clothing, shoes, hats, luggage, and watches.
Gang 2 recruits elderly friends who come to Xiamen to travel and sell fake and shoddy jewellery.
The suspects such as Chen bought low-end jewelry and false identification certificates at a low price from a supplier in a city in Fujian Province. At the same time, they colluded with multiple travel agencies to solicit foreign tourists, mainly elderly people, to travel to Xiamen.
During the tour, tour guides and drivers took tourists to the jewelry store opened by Chen and others, arranged for sales staff to pretend to be "the rich second generation of jewelry business" to win the trust of tourists and introduce sales, and sell low-end jewelry at a price dozens of times the purchase price For elderly friends.
After being "routine"
How should elderly friends defend their rights?
Hong Zhixin reminded that the elderly should not be attracted by the small favors, stay away from the "routine tour" and report them in time.
How can elderly friends protect their rights after being "routine"?
He reminded that elderly friends should call the police as soon as possible and keep relevant bills of consumption.
Regarding how to retain the certificate, taking two cases in Xiamen as an example, the Xiamen police are currently sorting out the victims, checking the physical objects, the entire chain of electronic data, and bills.
The cultural and tourism department reminds elderly friends to pay attention to the following three points to prevent "routines": First, the cultural and tourism departments in various places generally screen each tourist with big data, and send SMS reminders to out-of-town tourists to remind elderly friends to consume rationally; secondly, When elderly friends choose to travel in a group, try to choose products organized by regular travel agencies, sign and retain travel contracts, and don't be tempted by low prices; finally, when elderly friends choose to shop, try to choose places that are open to local citizens to strengthen their rights. , Permit awareness, and reasonable rights protection.
If you are shopping during the journey, you should try to keep the outer packaging, valid shopping vouchers, consumption receipts, and request invoices, and try to transfer the money to the merchant instead of the individual.
Regarding the post-event recovery process, if elderly friends feel that there is a problem with the product in the local area, they can call the local 12315 and 12345 to complain within 30 days, or to the cultural and travel administration department where the group is located.
Text/Wang Min