Entering China
On March 11, Sun Yeli, Minister of Culture and Tourism, said in the third session of the Third Session of the 14th National People’s Congress held in the North Hall of the Great Hall of the People that this year will carry out special governance on issues such as unreasonable low-cost travel and forced shopping.
Sun Yeli pointed out that in recent years, while the culture and tourism industry have developed rapidly, there have been some problems. For example, everyone has a strong reaction to unreasonable low-cost tours, forced shopping, especially forced shopping, which damages the travel experience of tourists, infringes on the rights and interests of consumers, worsens the local business environment, and damages the image of the place.
On the one hand, we will intensify the crackdown and punishment, and on the other hand, we will continue to improve the legal system, strengthen the guidance of standards, promote and build a culture of creditworthiness in the whole society, and strive to eradicate such a stubborn disease through a multi-pronged approach.
On the same day, Zhou Weihong, deputy general manager of Spring and Autumn Tourism, said in an interview with The Paper that some areas are actually rich in tourism resources, but the local area often relies on some natural resources, and will overrely on reducing prices to attract tourists in the off-season, and make up for costs through other means. “It’s not that it’s low-priced, it’s unreasonably low-priced. Because unreasonable low prices will make consumers have a wrong perception of the tourism industry, and will have a one-sided understanding of the tourism market and tourism talents. Zhou Weihong believes that “in terms of the intensity of crackdown and punishment, it is necessary to grasp the crux of the key direction and focus on rectification.” ”
An industry analyst who did not want to be named said in an interview with The Paper that the measures taken by the regulator to crack down on unreasonable low-cost tours and forced shopping chaos are conducive to the healthy development of the industry and can effectively avoid the vicious circle of “bad money driving out good money” in the industry. At the consumption level, the relevant measures are conducive to creating a good tourism consumption environment, further enhancing tourism consumption confidence, and stimulating consumption potential, which is a major benefit for formal tourism enterprises.
The analyst pointed out that there is an essential difference between unreasonable low-cost tours and low-cost tours: unreasonable low-cost tours or even zero-negative group fees are essentially shopping groups under the guise of low prices or free fees, which are violations that disrupt market order, and some of them also have illegal behaviors such as forced consumption. The low-cost tour is a low-cost product within a reasonable range, which is not within the scope of the crackdown, on the contrary, there has been a considerable scale of demand, which is also the embodiment of the diversification of demand in the era of mass tourism.
However, it is worth noting that at the market level, some “unreasonable low-cost tours” and “low-cost shopping groups” still have some audiences who are willing to waste some time at shopping points in exchange for cheaper group tours.
“I walked through the kind of free Yunnan tour myself, and the attractions are indeed for you to see, and the tour guide did not force you to buy and sell. A car only needs to ship one or two pieces of jadeite to pay off. Xiao Jia, a travel agency, told The Paper.
Therefore, Xiao Jia expressed concern about the governance of “unreasonable low-cost tours”: “Now so many years of experience in shopping groups, but all travel agencies that do this kind of low-cost tours are ‘bought lessons’, and they can’t catch their loopholes in the itinerary, for example, the jade shop will write ‘jade museum’ in the itinerary, and the guests have also signed a travel contract, and there is no way to complain after they come back.” ”
“For some guests, I spend so much money to go to a jade shop, and I don’t lose money, and it’s also very interesting to watch.” Xiao Jia said bluntly, “To put it bluntly, cheap products will always be popular products.” ”
“Unreasonable low-cost travel and forced shopping are actually a problem, and unreasonable low-cost travel is inevitably accompanied by forced shopping. Therefore, while cracking down on such violations, it is also necessary to carry out a thorough rectification of the tourism and shopping market of the destination at the same time, and completely block the interest chain of unreasonable low-cost tours. The above-mentioned analysts pointed out that at the same time, from the perspective of practitioners, we should continue to promote the reform of the tour guide system, further relax the threshold for free practice of tour guides, form a new pattern of “high quality and high price” of tour guide services, and let excellent tour guides return to the service itself. In addition, on the consumer side, we will increase consumer education for middle-aged and elderly groups with a high concentration of victims of unreasonable low-cost tours, and continue to publicize the harm of unreasonable low-cost tours to avoid damage to the rights and interests of consumers.
