Tricks of "low-price tours": You can make your money back by relying on "head fees"

Xinwang reported on November 15 that a four-day and three-night cross-city trip costs less than 900 yuan per person. But after joining the group, I found that traveling is like a "business trip". I am dragged to the shopping store to check in early every morning, and I am not allowed to leave if I don't stay long enough. Xinwang has learned that this type of tour group is called a "trap group" in the industry. The travel agency that organizes the "trap group" itself does not make money by collecting tourists' group fees, but leads tourists to shopping stores to earn "head fees." and shopping share. "Travel agencies launch routes, third-party marketing companies promote to attract customers, and shopping stores in the routes sell products to tourists, all of which have formed a closed loop of profit." Mr. Jiang, a former tour guide who has been in the industry for many years, told Xinwang that by organizing "trap groups", travel agencies You can get 30% or more of sales from shopping stores, and tour guides can also get 5%-6% commission. Mr. Jiang said that "cheating tours" may seem cheap, but after one trip, tourists often find that they have made a lot of "impulse purchases", and this result is actually doomed when tourists sign up for a tour.

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Former tour guide reveals the tricks of low-priced tours of travel agencies: You can get it by relying on the "capitation fee" Return

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2021-11-16 10:40 People's Technology Official Account

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"Source of this article: Peninsula Official website"

Xinwang reported on November 15 that a four-day and three-night cross-city trip costs less than 900 yuan per person. But after joining the group, I found that traveling is like a "business trip". I am dragged to the shopping store to check in early every morning, and I am not allowed to leave if I don't stay long enough. Xinwang has learned that this type of tour group is called a "trap group" in the industry. The travel agency that organizes the "trap group" does not make money by collecting tourists' group fees, but leads tourists to shopping stores to earn "head fees." and shopping share. "Travel agencies launch routes, third-party marketing companies promote to attract customers, and shopping stores in the routes sell products to tourists, all of which have formed a closed loop of profit." Mr. Jiang, a former tour guide who has been in the industry for many years, told Xinwang that by organizing "trap groups", travel agencies You can get 30% or more of sales from shopping stores, and tour guides can also get 5%-6% commission. Mr. Jiang said that "cheating tours" may seem cheap, but after one trip, tourists often find that they have made a lot of "impulse purchases", and this result is actually doomed when tourists sign up for a tour.

(Source: Party concerned)

After explicitly requesting not to enter the store, she was dragged to the shopping store before seven o'clock in the morning

In June this year, Ms. Zhou I plan to travel to Qingdao with two elderly people and two children. While looking up travel guides online, she saw an advertisement from Qingdao Hyatt International Travel Agency: a trip to Qingdao and Weihai for four days and three nights would cost only 880 yuan per person. "Travel agencies are usually more familiar with local attractions. They can not only plan the best route, but also arrange hotel accommodation. They also provide transportation between the attractions and the hotel, which is much more convenient than self-driving travel." Thinking of this, Ms. Zhou was a little excited. However, Ms. Zhou had also been suspicious of this kind of low-price tour, so before signing up, she specifically asked the customer service staff not to gather too early in the morning, not to have shopping malls, and to stay in a better hotel. “I told the customer service, if If these requirements are not met, I can choose one-on-one, and the price is higher.”

After the customer service fully agreed to her request, Ms. Zhou paid a deposit of 300 yuan, which she paid again after arriving in Qingdao. Got the rest of the tour fee. But when the tour officially started, Ms. Zhou failed to fulfill all the requirements of the travel agency: "We asked to gather at the shopping store at 6:50 in the morning, and we were not allowed to come out for less than two hours. The prices of things sold in the shopping store It's very tempting, but the quality is really unsatisfactory. I originally wanted to buy a piece of jade, but unexpectedly the jewelry on the stone fell off at that time."

I went to the shopping store at six or seven o'clock in the morning for two days in a row." "Registration" made Ms. Zhou's family exhausted, and the trip ended in a terrible experience. Coincidentally, Ms. Liu, a citizen, also had a similar experience: "My family and I signed up for a double flight to Hong Kong and Macao. The tour fee was only a few hundred yuan, but there were a lot of shopping stores on the itinerary. Almost every time we entered the store, the shopping store employees would pull us down. The rolling shutter door blocked cell phone signals and we had to wait for several hours before we could get out. In the end, each of us bought thousands of things, and some even bought tens of thousands of bracelets. When we came back, we found that they were not worth the money at all. "< /p>

Low-priced tour groups are “cheating tours”. Travel agencies can make back their money by relying on the “capita fee” of shopping malls

Low-priced tour groups that rely on price-matching to attract tourists have been repeatedly criticized in recent years. The fundamental reason is that the tour group has turned into a shopping group. The tour guide persuades tourists to buy everything from mattresses to accessories.

Mr. Jiang is a tour guide with 13 years of experience and is also the former tour guide of Qingdao Kaiyue International Travel Agency where Ms. Zhou participated in the tour. Speaking of the reason for his resignation, Mr. Jiang said bluntly: "It's because the 'travel tour' offered by this travel agency is so bad."

Mr. Jiang told Xinwang that Ms. Zhou participated in such low-cost travel tours. They are called "cheat tours" in the industry, and low prices are the trump card of travel agencies. Some travel agencies even offer "cheat tours" without charging tour fees or repaying them. "From the information about 'cheat tours' that tourists search online, From the beginning, the routine of deceiving people to spend money began.

”

Mr. Jiang said that most of these “scam tours” will use online promotion methods to attract tourists. When tourists search for travel destinations online, a large number of information recommending group tours will appear. There are tour guides’ WeChat ID and other contact information. These are the advertisements that the travel agency spends money on.

And during the entire trip, the travel agency arranges multiple shopping stores for the “travel group”, as long as they take tourists to the store. , the travel agency can get the "head fee." If the tourists make shopping purchases, the travel agency can also get an additional share. "This is the real profit point. Generally, the travel agency can get 30% of the share, and the tour guide can get it." 5%-6%. "In this way, whether it is an online promotion platform that attracts customers, travel agencies, or shopping stores, they can make a steady profit, and only tourists will be cheated.

Ms. Zhou came here in June this year For tourists, it was Qingdao’s peak tourist season, and the per-person cost of the tour group should be around 1,000 yuan. During Ms. Zhou’s itinerary, the travel agency arranged for two shopping stores, Latex and Jade. “In fact, the two stores paid a head fee. It will cover the cost. After the National Day, another shopping store was added to the group, and the travel agency could still make a net profit from the head fee of the third shopping store, as well as the commission from tourists' shopping. "Mr. Zhou analyzed.

In addition to shopping, the self-paid items of "cheating tours" are also a "money-making tool" for travel agencies. Taking the itinerary of Ms. Zhou's family as an example, there are five self-paid items. The package price is 650 yuan per person. “It is said to be voluntary, but if there are fewer customers paying, the tour guide will inevitably lose face. Everyone was happy when they came out to play, especially those with children. No one was unhappy, so basically everyone bought it. ”

Mr. Jiang provided Qingdao Hyatt International Travel Agency’s internal share accounting table to Xinwang. A low-price group of 13 people spent 39,555 yuan on shopping throughout the trip, and the travel agency’s share was as high as 22,389.35 yuan. The self-paid amount was 6,487 yuan. Yuan, the tour guide can get a share of 1,581 yuan, and the travel agency can get a profit of 3,686 yuan.

It is not easy for tourists to "gnash their teeth and not spend any money", so travel agencies and stores have already developed routines to deal with it

In recent years, the true nature of low-priced “scam tours” has been exposed by the media one after another, but in real life there are still people who jump into them even though they know they are “scam tours” – “Bite the bullet and don’t pay, anyway, the tour guide You can't force me. "This is the psychological portrayal of some tourists who participate in "cheating tours". These price-sensitive consumers usually do not use the quality of the itinerary as their first choice. They believe that as long as they can resist shopping or other self-paid items arranged by travel agencies, they can achieve low-cost travel. However, as an industry insider, Mr. Jiang said that tourists’ psychology has long been understood by travel agencies. As the saying goes, no matter what kind of tourists they are, they can’t escape spending money to visit stores.

“For example, the owner of a jade shop claimed to have invited lecturers from the south and invited tourists to attend lectures. You are not forced to buy anything, but you must listen to it for two and a half hours. But if you buy something, you can get it out early. When encountering such a situation, do you think you will pay for it?" Mr. Jiang said that most of these stores have "shills". If one lecturer cannot sell, another lecturer will immediately become the boss and keep saying Shouting that the original price was 8,000 and now selling for 800 will make people feel that if they don't buy it, they will suffer a big loss. Almost no tourists can bear this "combination punch", even if they react and want to return it after returning home. Due to the long distance, difficulty in identification, and mutual pushback between travel agencies and tour guides, most people have no choice but to suffer losses.

In addition, in order to ensure profitability, travel agencies operate "cheating tours". They are also very picky. In the internal quotation sheet sent by Mr. Jiang, the travel agency’s pricing for group tours is divided into several brackets according to age, but there is no price tag for the 28-68 age group. “This is divided according to shopping ability. , children and the elderly do not have the spending power, so they have to charge moderately. People aged 28-68 are the main force of consumption, and the price is usually a 'negative tour fee'."

At the same time, this quotation There is another detail in the table, which clearly states that "pregnant women, disabled people, jewelry practitioners, donkey hide gelatin practitioners, tourism colleagues and the media industry are not accepted."

Qingdao has issued a low-cost guide for honest tourism. Those who exceed the guide price by 30% will be given a red warning

In recent years, relevant national departments have issued a series of regulations, regulations and documents in response to the chaos in the tourism market. "Opinions" was released, officially defining unreasonable low-price tourism: deviating from the law of value, being lower than operating costs, attracting tourists with false prices, inducing consumption with false propaganda, and disrupting the market with unfair competition.

In order to further promote civilized tourism in Qingdao and resist illegal and illegal activities in the tourism market such as unreasonable and low-priced tours, this year Qingdao Tourism Association, Qingdao Travel Agency Association, Qingdao Tour Guides Association, Qingdao Senior Tourism Association, Qingdao Municipal Government The Association of Tourism Practitioners jointly formulated and released Qingdao’s key tourist route product honest tourism guide prices. It is reported that the guide prices are the result of Qingdao’s five major tourism industry associations jointly with the cultural and tourism departments, based on statistics of tourist bus operating prices, hotel room prices, catering, and tickets. After waiting for the normal price, it is formulated based on the actual industry. Its biggest highlight is that it can measure whether a tour group has the possibility of unreasonably low prices.

When the product price released by the travel agency is 10% lower than the "guide price", it will enter a yellow warning, and the relevant associations and the cultural and tourism authorities at the municipal and district (city) levels will interview it. When the product price released by the travel agency is 30% lower than the "guideline price", a red alert will be entered. The cultural and tourism authorities at the municipal and district (city) levels will follow the "Travel Law of the People's Republic of China" and other laws and regulations. Relevant regulations will initiate law enforcement procedures in a timely manner and order related products to be removed from the shelves.

The relevant person in charge of the Qingdao Travel Agency Association said that the long-term existence of "unreasonable low-price travel" products directly suppresses the market share of regular products of tourism companies, harms the interests of tourists, damages the city's image, and increases the probability of complaints and disputes. , Deteriorating the business environment. From a phenomenon point of view, "unreasonable low-price travel" triggers disorderly competition, which in turn deepens the degree of disorderly competition. The person in charge also reminded that the reporting hotlines for "unreasonable low-price travel" products are 12301 and 12345, and citizens should correctly identify travel agency qualifications and sign contracts.

Xinwang reporter Wang Qi