Wu Jingmin’s point of view

"Hainan Island Tour of 6 days and 5 nights with regular quality, quasi-four-star standard, price 0 yuan; 5 days and 4 nights, price -50 yuan." You will be moved when you see such a Hainan travel quotation ? Don’t think that this is a fantasy. Wu Jingmin, known as the “expert tour guide”, showed such a relevant information to the audience at the recording site of CCTV’s Social and Legal Channel’s “Everyone’s Opinion” weekend program “My Suggestion” Promotional materials for Hainan tourism.

It is clearly prohibited but there are a lot of "zero tour fees and negative tour fees" that linger

Wu Jingmin first showed the audience a copy of the The reporter found that one of the advertisements for Hainan group tours included a "6 days and 5 nights, quasi-four-star standard" regular quality tour around the island, and the price was actually 0 yuan. So, does this mean that if consumers choose this team, they can travel to Hainan for free? Wu Jingmin told reporters that this is not the case, because this advertisement is not aimed at ordinary tourists, but is only issued within the national travel agency system. The price of 0 yuan is aimed at foreign travel agencies that organize tourists to travel to Hainan. In other words, “If you sign up for this regular quality tour in Beijing and come to Hainan, no matter how much you pay in Beijing for the tour, after the Beijing travel agency sends you to Hainan, the local Hainan travel agency will usually be responsible for your travel. We spent 6 days and 5 nights in Hainan eating, drinking and sleeping, but the travel agency in Beijing did not have to pay any fees to the travel agency in Hainan.”

Obviously, in such a transaction, the local travel agency in Hainan will suffer. , but why do these travel agencies take the initiative to advertise to attract travel agencies from other places to discuss cooperation? Wu Jingmin told reporters the whole story: "For example, if you spend five days eating, drinking, and sleeping in Hainan, it costs about 600 yuan. As a travel agency, I may have to pay 200 yuan, and who will pay for the remaining 400 yuan?" The bus driver has to pay 100, and the shopping store has to pay 300. Naturally, travel agencies, bus drivers and shopping stores will not pay for tourists’ trips in vain, and they will naturally make profits by using various means to allow tourists to shop. important ways. According to the reporter's understanding, on May 1, 2009, the "Travel Agency Regulations" passed by the 47th Executive Meeting of the State Council began to be officially implemented. Article 37 of it clearly stipulates: "Travel agencies that entrust their tourism business to other travel agencies shall report to The entrusted travel agency shall pay no less than the reception and service costs; the entrusted travel agency shall not receive a tourist group that does not pay or fails to pay the reception and service fees in full. "Although relevant prohibitive regulations have long been formulated, it is ridiculous. What is surprising is that the promotional materials about Hainan tourism presented by Wu Jingmin were actually issued on March 15, 2010, which is Consumer Rights Protection Day.

The rebates provided by shopping stores to travel agencies vary greatly depending on the region of the tourists

During the recording of the program, Wu Jingmin also showed another to the audience. The internal information of a travel agency shows: Malaysia is 57 yuan, Beijing is 25 yuan, and Hainan is 10 yuan. So what do these money numbers mean? Wu Jingmin told reporters that this is a shopping store in Hainan that specializes in selling kitchen knives and provides a list of rebates to travel agencies. Among them, "Malaysian 57 yuan" means that if a travel agency brings tourists from Malaysia to this store to buy kitchen knives, the store will first pay the travel agency a commission of 57 yuan for every tourist brought in; for every tourist brought in from Beijing, The store will pay 25 yuan; because Hainan locals know the situation well and are not easily fooled, the store will only pay a commission of 10 yuan to the travel agency for every tourist from Hainan. In addition to offering hefty commissions, Wu Jingmin also told reporters that most of the products sold in these shopping stores lack quality assurance. "These kitchen knives were said to be military products, but were later found to be three-no products. The original price was 35 yuan a set, but they were sold to tourists for 200 to 300 yuan a set. They were rotten as soon as they were chopped at home." The reporter also noticed that, Wu Jingmin mentioned the sale of fake and shoddy kitchen knives in the name of "military products" in tourist attractions. As early as June 20 this year, CCTV's financial channel had done a special report on it; Hainan Provincial Tourism Commission comprehensive rectification The team also seized the sales point of a tableware company in February this year.

Self-paid items in group tours are an important source of profits for travel agencies

In addition to trying every means to get tourists to enter shopping stores for consumption, Wu Jingmin in "I "Recommendations" also mentioned that as a local travel agency, there is another very important way for travel agencies to make profits, which is to actively recommend self-funded travel projects to tourists, and in many cases, the profits earned by travel agencies on self-funded projects are even Much more than letting tourists shop. For example, when traveling to Hainan, diving is a self-funded project recommended by many tour groups. Such self-funded projects are also specified in the travel contract. However, tourists often do not know the actual value of these self-paid projects. "Hainan is very famous for diving. Basically, the market price is 380 yuan per person. In fact, the lowest price offered to travel agencies is only 50 yuan. For example, when going to Boundary Island, the face price is 148 yuan, which is approved by the Price Bureau. , but in fact the price it charges the travel agency is only 35 yuan per person.

"Faced with such a huge price difference, Wu Jingmin believes that travel agencies will definitely spare no effort to recommend self-paid items to tourists, but often do not consider its actual content and quality.

Inadequate supervision is the reason why tourists and travel agencies The main reason for the constant disputes

Wu Jingmin told reporters that some of the so-called "hidden rules" he mentioned in the industry have already been implemented on May 1, 2009. The "Travel Agency Regulations" have clear prohibitive provisions and penalties for relevant situations; the "Law of the People's Republic of China on Anti-Unfair Competition" also prohibits "low-price malicious competition" and "prohibition of commercial bribery" However, it is precisely the lack of supervision by relevant departments that makes such so-called "hidden rules" of the industry continue to be banned. At the same time, Wu Jingmin also pointed out that after the incident of Hong Kong tour guide A Zhen insulting tourists, public opinion will be criticized. Many places have focused on the "evil" words of the tour guide Azhen. In fact, through the attention of public opinion, finding out the institutional and industry reasons for such disputes and proposing practical solutions are the best way to avoid the recurrence of industry scandals. A good idea.

Liu Deqian, deputy director of the Tourism Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, who also participated in the recording of the program, and Zhang Bo, a senior tourism practitioner from Guilin, also agreed with Wu Jingmin’s view. Not in place, the threshold for establishing travel agencies is too low, resulting in extremely fierce competition among peers, and the lack of salary guarantees for tourism practitioners. These are also the main reasons for the chaos in the domestic group tour market, and these reasons are usually resolved through tour guides. Therefore, if these institutional reasons cannot be solved well, it is not surprising that there are frequent conflicts between tourists and tour guides.

So, how to solve the current problems in the domestic group travel market. Can these "industry insiders" effectively protect the rights and interests of consumers? Some industry experts also expressed their suggestions on these issues in the weekend program "My Suggestions" of "Everyone's Views". Current affairs commentator Guo Songmin pointed out that two things should be done "Timely" means that "first, tourists' complaints can be handled in a timely manner; second, tourists' complaints against this travel agency can be promptly released through various channels, such as publishing them online to let tourists know Which travel agencies engage in deceptive practices? "In view of the current situation of tour guides, Liu Deqian, deputy director of the Tourism Research Center of the Academy of Social Sciences, also pointed out that while strengthening the supervision and investigation of "zero tour fees and negative tour fees", the basic salary of tour guides must be guaranteed, and it is also necessary to A system of "tips" has been implemented in China. Zhang Bo, a senior tourism practitioner from Guilin, even boldly proposed that legislation could be considered to separate shopping from group travel itineraries and not allow travel agencies to organize shopping in order to facilitate travel. The competent authorities will supervise and investigate. He Shan, deputy inspector of the National People's Congress Legal Affairs Committee and a famous jurist who participated in the recording of the program, said that the suggestions mentioned by the guests are very helpful for improving relevant laws and regulations and will also promote the development of the tourism market. further specification.