Ctrip, JD among online travel sites faulted for cheating tourists
Print Edition
A LUXURY cruise trip on the Huangpu River which turned out to be a passenger ferry ride across the river, or a trip to the 2010 World Expo Germany Pavilion which does not even exist — these were some of the scams promoted by online travel operators in their one-day tours of Shanghai.
The list of violators included such big names as online travel giant Ctrip and other e-commerce giants.
The Shanghai Consumer Rights Protection Commission checked out eight travel agencies offering one-day tours of Shanghai and faulted seven of them for failing to deliver on their promises.
The commission carried out its investigation ahead of today’s China Tourism Day.
The complaints range from coaxing tourists into shopping, adding extra paid tours and fake promotion, to passing on the group to smaller agencies without notifying them, said Tao Ailian, the secretary-general of the Commission.
“The result of our investigation was disappointing,” Tao said.
Shanghai-based online travel booking site Ctrip passed on their tours to other travel agencies without informing the travelers in advance. The commission said travel agencies serving the tourists were not mentioned in the contract. Ctrip’s contract with tourists was incomplete as well, the commission said.
Another online travel service provider Tuniu and JD.com, China’s second-largest e-commerce website, were also found illegally sub-contracting their packages to other travel agencies.
But in the biggest scam of all, group purchase website Meituan.com promised luxury cruise trips on the Huangpu River to tourists, but instead, took them on the 2-yuan ferry ride used by locals to cross the river.
Meituan also added shopping trips in its tours without informing tourists in advance.
Meituan.com said it will look into the complaints.
A travel website 51yala.com was found forcing tourists into buying extra itineraries like sightseeing tour to the Shanghai World Financial Center.
It was also faulted for fake promotion by listing in its itinerary a tour to the Germany Pavilion, which was dismantled after the Shanghai World Expo in 2010.
While its itinerary said the one-day tour ends at 5pm, it actually ended at 2:20pm.
The commission found most tourists fall for cheap prices and the ease of buying tour packages online.
A one-day tour of Shanghai usually comprises a visit to the Shanghai Oriental Pearl TV Tower, the Bund, the Yuyuan Garden and Nanjing Road. At times, a cruise tour on the Huangpu River is also part of the deal.
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