"I used to be a domestic tour guide and have taken large numbers of tourists to Yunnan Province. But I left my job two years ago as I could not tolerate the chaotic market and a working environment that was full of squalid interests anymore," Xiao Mei (pseudonym), a Chengdu-based tour guide told the Global Times.
Xiao Mei said that most domestic tour guides graduated from low-ranking schools and find it hard to get high-paying jobs. "The way they earn money is like gambling: betting on how much money tourists will spend during the trip," she said.
According to her, to attract tourists, more and more travel agencies have begun to offer unreasonably low-price tours, and such tours usually lead to conflicts between tourists and tour guides. "To some extent, tour guides are also a vulnerable group," she said.
A female tour guide in Kunming, Yunnan Province recently had her tour license revoked after video showing her berating visitors for not buying enough souvenirs during the trip went viral.
The video shows the woman threatening to not show the tourists around the next city on their itinerary and saying that the travel agency would not provide them with return plane tickets if they failed to spend at least 3,000 yuan ($483) each.
The video quickly spread online, triggering a frenzy of discussion among the public and drawing the attention of the tourism authorities. The National Tourism Administration announced on May 4 that the woman, surnamed Chen, was banned from being a tour guide and the travel agency where she works was fined 50,000 yuan and required to shut down for six months.
However, Chen was quoted by the Xinhua News Agency as saying that the tourists already knew that they needed to spend a certain amount of money when they booked the trip.
Chen said that the tourists paid very little to come on the tour and she claimed that she didn't get paid a wage and all the money she earned came from commission on their purchases.
This incident has raised concerns over "unreasonably low priced tours," which the authorities claim are the origin of the "diseases" of the tourist market.
You get what you pay for
According to the Tourism Law introduced in 2013, travel agencies are prohibited from selling services at unreasonably low prices, or from profiting through any arrangements with designated stores. Travelers should not be obliged to pay for any extras other than those specifically mentioned in their booking contract.
However, low-price services are still popular, especially for tourists seeking to travel to Yunnan.
The listed prices for tours bound from Beijing to Yunnan vary widely on different tourism websites.
For example, Beijing Youth Travel Service (BYTS) boasts on its website a six-day tour with round trip air tickets for about 800 yuan for each person. But tuniu.com charges nearly 4,000 yuan for a similar tour that it claims to involve zero shopping tours.
During a telephone inquiry, the Global Times reporter learned from a BYTS staff member that only people of certain ages and household registration status are eligible for their tours.
"Visitors who book these low-price tours are required to be between 28 to 52 years old," said the employee, adding that people who do not meet the requirements have to pay an extra 300 yuan to book a place on the trip.
When asked why there is an age requirement, the worker responded that the tour group will be taken to some souvenir stores and that "visitors at that age usually have strong consumption ability."
The worker noted that tour guides do not force them to purchase things, but that whether they can earn any money depends on how much the tourists spend. "It is like a gamble," she said.
Trick of the trade
According to the employee, visitors from different cities across China who book low-price trips will meet up in Yunnan to form a new tour group.
An anonymous travel agency leader explained that "this aims to prevent tourists from forming a clique," according to a report of the Beijing Morning Post.
"For example, if the visitors all come from Beijing, if some say that they do not want to buy souvenirs, others won't either. However, if the visitors come from different places and they do not know each other, they will buy things and tour guides will get commissions," the leader was quoted as saying.
The worker said that the low-price trips are only open to those who are willing to form a group in Yunnan and asserted that other travel agencies also have a similar business model.
"Tourists are usually required to stay at the designated store for a time but it is no less than two hours," according to the staff member.
Guiding the market
Low-price tours are not the same as the "zero or even negative fare tours." Some travel agencies provide these services as part of promotions and it will not harm customers' interest, Liu Simin, deputy secretary-general of the Beijing Tourism Society, told the Global Times Tuesday.
However, Liu said that "some low-price tours, in reality, are zero-fare tours, which usually attract customers with their low prices and make shopping part of their schedules. Although theoretically they will not force visitors to spend, they intend to implement time limitations, which are also illegal."
The Tourism Law includes provisions to counter the practice of zero, or even negative, fare tours. These are tours sold at or below cost to lure in unwitting travelers who are then bullied into purchasing goods or tipping their guides while on holiday.
What happened to the Kunming female tour guide could encourage more tourists to stand up and defend their rights, which is a crucial way to purify the market, Liu said, adding that the authorities should strengthen their supervision on travel agencies and tour guides, and implement harsher punishments for agencies that run illegal low-price tours.
Liu also called for tourists to pay more attention to the overall travel experience instead of only looking at the price.
