Don't let unreasonable low-priced tours "add congestion" to tourism recovery
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The tourism industry is picking up, and unreasonable and low-priced travel is showing signs of reappearing.
Industry insiders pointed out that low-price cards are a common means for travel agencies to attract tourists. To eradicate this chaos, it is necessary to promote the upgrading of the tourism industry chain and services.
"I almost fell for it! But the price is really attractive." On February 20, Ms. Xu, a resident of Shapingba District, Chongqing, was still terrified when she talked about her experience a few days ago.
Ms. Xu, who retired last year, has always wanted to travel to Yunnan.
During the Spring Festival holiday, seeing the booming tourism market, she decided to go to Yunnan after the holiday.
"After browsing for a few days, I found a product that is very attractive. For a 6-day, 5-night itinerary, the group report fee only costs 499 yuan." But when she went to the travel agency, she realized that the so-called low-cost tour was just a gimmick, and the promised service was not enough. Cashed in, attractions turned into shopping malls, and tourists complained.
The tourism market has finally ushered in a recovery situation, why do some people come to "add congestion"?
The reporter noticed that in recent years, although tourism authorities at all levels have repeatedly cracked down on unreasonable and low-priced tours, such phenomena are still repeatedly banned.
Now, with the recovery of the tourism industry, the signs are reappearing, and how to regulate governance has attracted attention.
One attraction with 5 shopping points
Ms. Xu told reporters that the travel agency advertised that the 499 yuan Yunnan tour includes Dali, Lijiang, Xishuangbanna and many other well-known destinations, and even said that it includes round-trip air tickets, and the hotel accommodation is above four stars.
Originally, Ms. Xu was going to sign up, but when she arrived at the travel agency, she found that it was just a small shop on the street, and there were still two tourists arguing with the staff.
Ms. Xu learned that the two tourists also reported to the Yunnan tour group before, and felt cheated after returning, and demanded a refund.
One of the tourists told Ms. Xu: "This tour group is full of pitfalls, and the scenic spots have become shopping malls, and all of them are small shops with extremely poor environment. If you don't buy anything, the tour guide will make a face, and even ask the driver to deliberately delay the driving time. .” After hearing about this situation, Ms. Xu quickly dismissed the idea of reporting to the group.
"No shopping, no room!" Recently, a video of "no room card if the shopping group's consumption is not up to the standard" has attracted attention.
In the video, an old man argues with another woman, claiming that the other party is forcing her to shop.
It is understood that this scene happened at the front desk of a hotel in Guilin City, Guangxi. The old man was a tourist and the woman was a local tour guide.
The tour group joined by the old man departs from Hainan, the tour fee is 398 yuan, and the itinerary is 7 days and 6 nights.
Subsequently, the Guilin Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism made an official response: After preliminary verification, the travel agency and tour guide involved were suspected of unreasonable low-priced travel and forced or disguised forced shopping, and have been investigated.
Mr. Peng, who lives in Yuzhong District, Chongqing, told reporters that he also encountered the problem of stepping on low-priced tours last summer.
"Before registration, it was claimed to be a '0 yuan tour'. After arriving, the travel agency not only arranged shopping spots, but also stipulated the consumption threshold."
"A scenic spot is matched with 5 shopping spots, and the tour guide directly asks how much money must be spent at each shopping spot before going to the next scenic spot." Mr. Peng said that when he came back from a trip, he bought a bunch of defective products. Stomach gas, did not experience the fun of travel at all.
Low-price travel products mostly come from unofficial travel agencies
"Unreasonable and low-priced travel has always existed, and the reasons behind it are very complicated." Zhang Zongjun, director of the marketing department of a travel agency in Chongqing, said that 80% of the contradictions, complaints and violations involving the tourism industry are due to low prices.
"Playing low-price cards is a common method for travel agencies to attract passengers." Zhang Zongjun analyzed that travel agencies are often divided into two types: group agencies and ground agencies.
The tour agency is responsible for attracting customers and making money according to the "head count", while the local travel agency is responsible for reception, allowing tourists to shop more and earn commissions is one of the profit sources of many local travel agencies.
A tour guide who is engaged in leading group tours in Chongqing pointed out that the needs of market consumers have contributed to the emergence of unreasonable and low-priced tour products.
"For tourists, of course, the cheaper the better, the operator has seized on this desire for cheap, first attracting tourists to join the group, and then illegally profiting by deceiving and forcing tourists to shop."
Zhang Zongjun also mentioned that price wars in the industry from time to time are also one of the reasons.
"Although many practitioners know very well that a price war is a lose-lose situation of 'injury one thousand to the enemy and eight hundred to oneself', but who is willing to give away the source of customers?"
"However, formal travel agencies will definitely not promote low-priced travel products. After all, this is a practice of self-destructing image and self-destructing brand." Some practitioners said so.
The reporter learned that most unreasonable and low-priced travel products come from unofficial travel agencies, and there are even some companies that have not obtained travel agency business licenses and cross-border companies. They are often hidden in the blind spots of relevant industry departments.
Promote the upgrading of the tourism industry chain and services
In August last year, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued the "Notice on Strengthening Industry Supervision and Further Regulating the Order of the Tourism Market", which clearly mentioned: unreasonable and low-priced tours in some areas, unlicensed travel agency business, forced or disguised forced shopping by tour guides Strengthen industry supervision and further standardize the order of the tourism market.
The reporter noticed that this is just one of the management documents issued in recent years to deal with the chaos of unreasonable and low-priced games. However, under heavy blows, why is this chaos still repeated?
The relevant person in charge of the Chongqing Tourism Association pointed out that on the one hand, some travel agencies and tour guides are driven by interests to take risks; on the other hand, because of unreasonable and low-priced tours with many stakeholders, long chains, and scattered supervision, it is difficult to cover them all.
"In our industry, the management of low-cost travel is called 'whack-a-mole'. If one side is cracked down, another side will pop up." Yuan Xin, who has worked in many travel agencies, described it this way.
Zhang Zongjun said that in order to eradicate unreasonable and low-priced tourism, it is necessary to promote the upgrading of the tourism industry chain and services, take the group agency as the source, implement the first responsibility system, and adjust the business model of the group agency relying on the number of people reported to the group and the local agency relying on tourists' consumption .
The two share responsibilities. Once violations of laws and regulations occur, they will be punished with the same intensity, so as to curb the frequent occurrence of chaos from the source.
Dai Bin, president of the China Tourism Academy, believes that to eradicate unreasonable and low-priced travel, first of all, promote the branding of more travel agencies and travel agents, so that the tourism market has more honest merchants, and achieve the effect of good money driving out bad money.
Secondly, establish an effective and timely judicial assistance and administrative assistance system, so that tourists can immediately find traps and hidden dangers during the tourism process, obtain timely help from the tourism administrative department, and cut off the unreasonable and low-priced travel interest chain.
"Workers' Daily" (Version 02, February 26, 2023)