What is the difference between a travel distribution center and a tour group?

Travel distribution centers mainly provide tourist bus services. You can ask for directions and departure times, which are different from travel agencies.

For example, take the Shanghai Tourism Distribution Center.

Shanghai’s tourism distribution center is located near the 80,000-person stadium in Xuhui District. There are many tour buses there, leading to various tourist attractions in Shanghai, such as the Oriental Pearl Tower, the Oriental Oasis, and the Jiangnan water towns around Shanghai. There is a ticket hall over there, which mainly sells tickets. The bus can take you there. It also provides ticket sales for attractions, which is commonly known as self-guided tours, but it is very convenient.

It was built under the No. 5 escalator of the Shanghai 80,000 Stadium and the No. 2 escalator of the Hongkou Football Stadium in order to meet and facilitate the needs of tourists of all ages and consumption levels in Shanghai and from other places. The luxurious and comfortable waiting hall with high-end facilities is for tourists to wait, shop and rest. The center currently has 40 tourist routes (including ten tourist routes in the city, peripheral routes, and seasonal routes) covering about 120 scenic spots, with about 400 departures every day. It is the only individual tourist collection and distribution point in Shanghai that has the function of a tourist supermarket. . The center mainly focuses on self-guided tours and provides discounted packages, tickets for scenic spots along the way and long-distance travel tickets. It integrates corporate tour guides and develops "one-day tour" tourism products, allowing you to enjoy the joy of travel.

In fact, to put it simply, group formation means signing up and paying money at a travel agency, and then the travel agency forms a tour group according to the number of people in a batch, and sets off to visit scenic spots together. This is called group formation.

As for the tourism distribution center, as the name implies, since it is a distribution center, it is mainly for the convenience of tourists and individual tourists, that is, independent tourists, providing services such as food, accommodation, transportation, and tour guides. Although there are also group tours, they are different from those organized by travel agencies.

Going with a group, you save money when you sign up, but it is very tiring after a few days, because you have to go to shopping malls, tourist attractions and so on. The itinerary is very tight. Of course, it is very cheap on the surface, but Most people join a group and then go shopping based on the tour guide’s explanation. That starts to cost money, so it’s very expensive to join a group. It’s better to go on a free trip with a few friends;

Free travel, you should understand it from the surface of the word. The most prominent thing is freedom. Free travel usually means that the travel agency provides you with a car for how much per day, including a driver (but does not include food and accommodation). , you don’t need to pay a deposit, you can go wherever you want. Of course, if you play this way, the tickets are of course the retail price, but it should be cheaper if you get the money from the driver (because the drivers here all have employment certificates) Yes, the certificate he reviewed can be appropriately discounted) Free travel means that you are responsible for the entire journey by yourself. You pay for the fare, accommodation, and meals by yourself. This way you will be more comfortable. You can stay at an attraction for as long as you want. Either way is fine, but sometimes you have to consider the driver, because if you stay at an attraction for a long time, it will be very hard for the driver, but if you go to a shopping store appropriately and buy a few things for him to make some money, the driver will be very happy. Happy, of course he will also provide you with more services when he takes you to play.

I wonder if this answer will be helpful to you? I wish you have fun choosing the way you like.