How did "travel package" become "travel money"?

On September 6, Beijing Qingyang Wuzhou Travel Agency, located in the Jingguang Center in Hujialou, Beijing, suddenly closed down, and the original office location was undergoing construction and renovation. An announcement from the Property Management Office of Jingguang Center showed that Beijing Qingyang International Travel Agency had terminated the house leasing contract due to breach of contract on August 28, 2017, and the property had been rented out separately. According to incomplete statistics, the number of rights-defending tourists involved in the "disconnection" of Qingyang Wuzhou ranges from several hundred to a thousand.

It is understood that the package prepayment products launched by Qingyang Wuzhou belong to the category of tourism finance. After collecting the money, the travel agency makes investment and makes a profit, and then returns part of the money to consumers. This tourism model has a low error tolerance rate for the use of funds. Once the operation is slightly careless, the capital chain may be broken. Some people believe that tourism finance is still in the development stage, and the relevant regulatory regulations are vague, and there are also high risks behind high returns. At present, the police have been involved in the investigation.

Economic Daily-China Economic Net commentator Liu Yan said that the travel package looks beautiful. At present, some travel agencies are attracting consumers under the banner of not only traveling but also saving money and making money. Behind the booming business, it not only reflects the mentality of some consumers to take advantage of the "high quality and low price" of travel package products, but also some consumers Aiming at the greedy mentality of not only saving money for traveling but also getting a return on investment later on. This is the direct reason why some tourism companies without any financial business qualifications can often succeed. High-deposit model travel package products that are on the edge of fraud not only fail to bring consumers a high-quality travel experience, but will instead A nightmare debt collection journey.

Tourism finance, which is subsequently extended from travel packages, must be established in the context of strong supervision. If consumers are interested in travel finance, they should contact more professional financial institutions for consultation, such as banks, rather than Just listen to what the travel agency says. When it comes to financial products, you need to establish the concept of "investment is risky, and you must be cautious when entering the market." Liu Yan finally said that travel packages, driven by greed, are turning into "travel arbitrage". Consumers must be more vigilant and learn to say no to high returns. Self-discipline is the prerequisite for consumption.

On August 31, the Beijing Municipal Tourism Commission issued an emergency notice prohibiting the sale of travel package products. The notice requires that all travel agencies and branches, travel agency outlets, and travel websites, starting from the date of issuance of this notice, are not allowed to bundle and sell travel package products for more than two routes, and are not allowed to charge tourists for more than two routes (inclusive) at one time, including Outbound and domestic travel. Travel agencies and tourists implement the "instant settlement" method of collection and payment for each route and each group sent. Travel agencies are not allowed to engage in unreasonable and low-priced tours in disguised forms such as "buy one and get more" or "pay a deposit and get a tour".

In the outbound tourism business, according to the requirements of the National Tourism Administration's "Notice on Regulating Matters Related to Outbound Travel Deposits", all tour groups must adopt a fund custody method with banks participating in collecting outbound travel deposits, and must not use cash. Or collect it directly by transfer. Tourists must not be required to deposit the outbound travel deposit directly into the personal account provided by the travel agency staff.

In response to these problems, the National Tourism Administration recently issued the "Notice on Regulating the Business Behavior of Travel Agencies to Protect the Legitimate Rights and Interests of Tourists", which puts forward requirements for local tourism authorities to perform their duties and travel agencies to standardize their operations, and advocates rational consumption by tourists. , and jointly resist illegal business practices and prevent market risks.

The "Notice" requires local tourism authorities to regulate the operation of travel agencies. First, strictly control the market risks brought by operating travel package products. Travel agencies are prohibited from collecting travel fees for two or more travel routes (i.e. two or more packaged travel products) at one time. The second is to strictly investigate irregularities in collecting outbound travel deposits. When outbound travel agencies collect outbound travel deposits, they must adopt a fund custody method with banks participating. They are not allowed to directly collect deposits in cash or cash transfers. They are not allowed to require tourists to directly deposit outbound travel deposits into the corporate accounts of travel agencies or the personal accounts of their staff. More The outbound travel deposit collected may not be used for other purposes. The third is to severely crack down on illegal operations of prepaid cards. Comprehensively investigate the issuance and performance of single-purpose prepaid cards of travel agencies, and it is strictly prohibited to convert single-purpose prepaid cards into multi-purpose prepaid cards without authorization. At the same time, the "Notice" emphasizes that if the local tourism authorities discover that a travel agency has committed the above violations, they should order it to make rectifications within a time limit; if a travel agency is found to have illegal fund-raising, contract fraud and other illegal activities, it should promptly report the relevant situation and clues and transfer them to the financial institution. Competent departments and public security organs.

The relevant person in charge of the Supervision and Management Department of the National Tourism Administration said that tourism authorities, travel agencies and tourists are the core elements that constitute the tourism market, and they respectively bear the responsibilities and obligations of regulatory entities, market entities and consumer entities. Tourism Competent departments must strengthen comprehensive supervision of market order, travel agencies must standardize their operations, tourists must consume rationally, and jointly maintain the order of the tourism market.