There will be no pie in the sky! Reveal the routine behind unreasonable low-cost tour

In recent years, incidents such as forcing tourists to shop, tricking tourists into spending, and violent conflicts caused by unreasonable low-cost travel have been frequently exposed, which have seriously damaged the rights and interests of tourists and affected the healthy development of tourism.

Unreasonable low-cost tours are often covered with beautiful coats such as "cheap", "great value" and "pie falling from the sky", but in fact they hide traps that harm the interests of tourists.

A few days ago, according to the unified arrangement of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Shanxi, Guangdong, Ningxia, Anhui, Gansu, Henan and other places have successively launched special rectification actions to crack down on unreasonable low-cost tours.

There will be no pie in the sky.

These are unreasonable low-cost tours.

1. Give away travel in the name of "Competition Award"

Tourist Week complained that a travel agency in Yichang, Hubei Province organized a six-day tour to Hong Kong and Macao for five people with "zero tour fee" in the name of rewarding the winners of the "Middle-aged and Old-aged Fitness Dance Competition". During the trip, the tour guide induced shopping behavior, and the purchased goods obviously did not match the quality and price. Monday and his party spent more than 90,000 yuan.

According to the investigation by the Comprehensive Law Enforcement Detachment of Yichang City, Hubei Province, a travel agency in Yichang City, Hubei Province organized 197 people to travel to Hong Kong and Macao in the name of rewarding the winners of a middle-aged and elderly fitness dance competition. Among them, the tour fee is 0 yuan/person under 55 years old and 380 yuan/person over 55 years old, but the tour fee is not paid to the land agency, and the land agency has to obtain costs and benefits through tourists' shopping.

After mediation, the travel agency agreed to handle the return formalities for tourists, and prepaid more than 90,000 yuan for the five-person return trip on Monday. Illegal acts of travel agencies shall be investigated and dealt with separately by means of "transferring cases".

Here, tourists are reminded to be wary of low-cost tours organized by businesses in the name of "Fitness Dance Competition", "Square Dance Competition" and "Red Song Competition". Such products must benefit from shopping or self-funded tourism projects.

2. Organize low-cost tours in the name of "government subsidies"

Yang, a tourist, complained that a travel agency in Beihai, Guangxi, organized a "zero tour fee" three-day tour of Guilin in the name of "government subsidy". During the tour, the tour guide took the tourists to the jade shop to induce the consumption of 2600 yuan, and the quality and price of the jade purchased were seriously inconsistent.

After mediation by Beihai Tourism and Culture Bureau of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the travel agency agreed to handle the return formalities for tourists and prepaid the return fee of 2,600 yuan. Illegal acts of travel agencies shall be investigated and dealt with separately by means of "transferring cases".

I would like to remind the tourists that there will be no pie in the sky, and free travel is a trap. We should be wary of low-cost tours organized by unscrupulous businesses in the name of "government subsidies".

3. Take customers to the streets for a low-cost tour

Tourist Gong complained that he signed up for a one-day tour of Xiamen at a travel agency in Xiamen Bus Terminal. Original tour fee 198 yuan, preferential price of 98 yuan. The contract stipulates that he will visit 10 many scenic spots. During the tour, the tour guide added additional paid tour items and arranged shopping without authorization, and Gong spent more than 600 yuan.

After mediation by the comprehensive law enforcement detachment of Xiamen Cultural Market, Fujian Province, the two sides reached a settlement, and the travel agency compensated Gong 700 yuan. Illegal acts of travel agencies shall be investigated and dealt with separately by means of "transferring cases".

I would like to remind the tourists that street tourists should not be credulous and low-cost travel is not reliable. Group tours should be registered at regular travel agency stores.

4. Sign up for a low-cost tour through the online travel platform.

Li, a tourist, complained that he signed up for a 5-day tour from Jingmen to Xiamen through an online travel platform, and the tour fee was 880 yuan. During the tour, the tour guide took the tourists to the shopping store without the consent of the tourists, and tricked and forced the tourists to buy jade articles for more than 50,000 yuan.

After mediation by the Cultural Comprehensive Law Enforcement Detachment of Jingmen City, Hubei Province, the travel agency involved agreed to handle the return of the goods for the tourists and paid more than 50,000 yuan in advance. Illegal acts of travel agencies shall be investigated and dealt with separately by means of "transferring cases".

Here, tourists are reminded not to blindly pursue low-priced products, but to choose line products with higher online reviews when reporting tours through online travel platforms.

5. Low-cost tours with significantly lower tour fees.

Tourist Zhang complained that he signed up for a 5-day tour of Kunming, Yunnan at a travel agency in Suzhou, with a tour fee of 198 yuan. Before the trip, Zhang learned that it was illegal for the travel agency to organize tourism activities at unreasonable low prices, so he appealed to the travel agency for a full refund.

After mediation by Xiangcheng Tourism Bureau of Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province, the travel agency reached a settlement with Zhang, and the travel agency agreed to return all the tour fees to Zhang. Illegal acts of travel agencies shall be investigated and dealt with separately by means of "transferring cases".

Here, tourists are reminded to sign up for the tour group rationally and consciously resist the tour group whose tour fee is obviously lower than the normal price.

Industry chaos for many years

Problems often arise.

Now turn to the online platform.

As early as 20 16, the national tourism administration issued the notice of the national tourism administration on organizing special actions to rectify "unreasonable low-cost tours" The notice pointed out that through the joint efforts of various regions and departments, the order of the tourism market has improved, and the comprehensive supervision mechanism of the tourism market has been further strengthened. However, the problems of "unreasonable low-cost travel" disrupting the order of the tourism market and infringing on the rights and interests of tourists are still outstanding.

After years of rectification, the phenomenon of unreasonable low-cost offline travel has greatly converged. However, with the development of the mobile Internet, unreasonable low-cost tours turn to social platforms. Many travel agencies and individuals publish tour group information through WeChat groups and official WeChat accounts, which may contain hidden traps, which are easy for tourists, especially middle-aged and elderly people.

At the same time, in the unreasonable low-cost travel of social platforms, there are many black travel agencies that have not obtained business qualifications. Some organizations or individuals publish information through the internet to attract tourists to participate in tourism activities without obtaining business licenses and travel agency business licenses. Because the organizers have not paid the guarantee for the quality of tourism services and will not sign formal travel contracts with tourists, the rights and interests of tourists are facing great threats.

Why is it repeatedly banned?

Tourism consumption chaos occurs frequently, and unreasonable low-cost tours are repeatedly banned. What is the crux of these problems?

1. Information asymmetry between the supply and demand sides of tourism

Packaged tourism products cover many elements such as food, shelter, transportation, travel, shopping and entertainment. Travel agencies often buy tourism products at a lower price than individual tourists. This is the obvious price advantage of group tour compared with individual tour, and it is also the main reason to attract tourists to join the group.

Due to the different purchase channels and prices of products of various travel agencies, the operating costs of the same tourist route are quite different, so it is difficult for tourists to judge the true costs of tourist routes. Especially when many travel agencies in the market offer low-priced products with small price difference, it is more difficult for tourists to distinguish the real price.

Due to the asymmetry of price information between the supply and demand sides, travel agencies obviously have information advantages. Tourists often don't know the real price and are more likely to accept low-cost travel services, which makes unreasonable low-cost travel have a certain market.

2. The traditional benefit model of "tourism+shopping" has been solidified.

The operation mode of unreasonable low-cost tour mainly depends on forcing tourists to buy and consume. Although the travel agency business has been impacted by the development of tourism e-commerce platform and individual travel in recent years, the gray chain relationship of "tourism+shopping" is still stable.

On the one hand, because many travel agencies have long adapted to the gray business model of introducing customers to shopping stores to get kickbacks, under the new situation of tourism development, they lack both innovation motivation and innovation ability, and it is difficult to achieve transformation and upgrading; On the other hand, the operation of many tourist shopping stores does not depend on the shopping consumption of local residents, but mainly on the shopping consumption of tourists, which makes them have a * * * relationship with travel agencies, and tourists can hardly survive without a team.

Therefore, in the face of the same interests, the relationship between them is solid. Once this model is broken, travel agencies and shopping stores will face survival problems.

Tourists are greedy and cheap, and suffer big losses.

There is a market only when there is demand. Another important factor is tourists.

Some travel agencies take advantage of consumers' greed for cheap to attract customers at low prices, especially middle-aged and elderly tourists, with price as the only measure. For example, the earlier Yunnan 10 day tour quoted 880 yuan, which didn't even pay enough for the round-trip ticket. Obviously, it was a trap, but many tourists were still willing to jump in, and eventually they suffered a big loss because of greed and cheap.

Remediation requires a multi-pronged approach.

1. Policy implementation, special rectification, unreasonable low-cost tour.

In recent years, governments at all levels and relevant departments have continued to rectify the chaos in the tourism consumption market, and the annual policies and measures have been continuously improved and optimized. Relevant departments in various localities have further strengthened their deployment, effectively protected consumers' rights and interests, and eliminated the industry atmosphere.

Recently, the special rectification campaign for unreasonable low-cost travel organized by local organizations will focus on rectifying the illegal and illegal business practices of the elderly in the name of free travel, health care experience, health care products promotion, food and daily necessities gift, forcing tourists to shop through deception, coercion or disguised form, and actually organizing and implementing travel agency business without permission; In the name of club members, organize activities such as outdoor expansion, car friends, inspection and tourism photography of specific groups, and actually organize and implement illegal and illegal business practices of operating travel agency business without permission.

This action will also strictly investigate packaged tourism products sold at a reasonable price lower than that recognized by the local industry, with a focus on day-trip products; Strictly investigate the behavior of "buying a tour group" or receiving "not paying or not paying the tour fee in full".

2. Source supervision of shopping stores

A large part of the reason for unreasonable low-cost travel lies in tourist shopping stores.

It is necessary to strengthen the supervision of local tourist shopping stores, register the existing tourist shopping stores, implement the management mode of one store and one yard, forcibly build a shopping store network monitoring system, and incorporate it into the local tourism network real-time monitoring platform.

It is necessary to improve the ledger system of tourist shopping stores and severely crack down on shopping rebates. It is necessary to establish a deposit system for tourist shopping stores and conduct classified management of tourist shopping stores. Explore the joint streets and communities to implement grid management of tourist shopping stores, clarify the network responsibility manager, and increase the daily supervision of tourist shopping stores. Tourist shopping shops selling fake and shoddy jewelry and jade should be cleaned up in time.

3. Join the platform to combat illegal recruitment in the tourism industry.

With the development of Internet and the change of mass consumption habits, online sales of tourism products has become a development trend. We should be wary of unreasonable low-cost travel to fish in troubled waters, extend the regulatory tentacles to the online, use big data technology to strictly investigate unreasonable low-cost travel, and establish a linkage mechanism with social platforms such as WeChat and Tik Tok.

It is reported that the special rectification actions carried out in various places will strengthen the network inspection, innovate the supervision mode, focus on strengthening the supervision of online travel agency business, and organize at least two centralized law enforcement inspections on the investigation and handling of travel agency business in various places through Tik Tok, Aauto Express, Xiaohongshu, WeChat official account and baidu promotion.

A few days ago, Aauto Quicker issued an announcement on cracking down on illegal solicitation in the tourism industry. According to the announcement, in order to maintain a good ecological environment of the platform, Aauto Quicker continues to crack down on soliciting information on the Internet and publishing information on tourism products by users without travel agency business licenses. Strictly review the relevant content through technical means and manual review. Once violations are found, penalties such as video screening and illegal data cleaning will be given.

It is understood that since March 2022, Aauto Quicker has blocked 3,545 illegal videos.

4. Strengthen publicity and change consumers' simple concept of price comparison.

The reason why tourism chaos such as unreasonable low-cost travel is repeatedly banned is not unrelated to the fact that some tourists lack self-protection awareness and are easy to choose cheap and low-quality tourism products. Some travel agencies just take advantage of tourists' greed for cheap, attract customers at low prices, and then make illegal profits by cheating and forcing tourists to shop.

It is necessary to strengthen publicity and education for tourists, especially elderly tourists, low-income groups and rural residents. Let them fully realize the harm of unreasonable low-cost travel, and at the same time widely publicize the formal channels for joining tour groups.

In this special rectification campaign, all localities will select a number of typical guiding cases to be published, strengthen publicity, give play to the exemplary role of guiding cases, deter illegal business practices, and guide the public to raise awareness of the rule of law.

At the same time, consumers themselves should be vigilant, change the concept of simple price comparison, consume rationally, don't trust the information of tourism products on social platforms, and pay attention to safeguarding their legitimate rights and interests from infringement.

People love to travel, not to reach their destination, but to enjoy the opportunities during the journey. Therefore, it is the details that impress tourists, and it is also the details that drive away tourists. I believe that after the warning effect of such cases, the phenomenon of unreasonable low-cost travel can be curbed, tourists can feel at home, and the tourism market will return to the right track.