Local tourists want travel agency probed over extra costs during trip
Print Edition
SEVERAL Shanghai tourists are demanding an investigation against a Nanjing travel agency after one of their tour guides tried to pressure them into buying extra tour programs during their trip to Thailand.
The Nanjing Kanghui Travel Agency in Jiangsu Province said it had not received any complaints while insisting their tour guide was correct.
The agency had charged local tourists around 4,000 yuan (US$645) per person for an eight-day packaged tour to Bangkok, Pattaya and Phuket.
At the time of signing the agreement, the tourists were told there were no extra costs to bear or shopping trips during the trip. But things started to go wrong on the second day of the trip itself. On May 3, the tour guide started promoting three extra tour packages with prices ranging from 600 yuan to 1,200 yuan. The packages involved elephant rides and feeding crocodiles while the most expensive trip was for a Thai massage and a cruise tour with a performance by transsexuals, said a Shanghai tourist surnamed Shen.
“You can choose not to go, but I will keep talking,” the female tour guide was heard saying to a woman tourist in a video posted online by Shen.
The guide was furious as very few of them agreed to shell out the extra fees. “You have no choice but to pay 1,200 yuan extra,” she said. “I don’t want to make all of you unhappy, and even if I charge you 2,000 yuan, you must pay.”
According to a national tourism law that came into effect in 2013, tourists have the right to reject tour programs not listed in the travel itinerary. It states all extra tour program has to be voluntary.
Travel agencies cannot designate a particular shopping venue or push for extra paid tour packages unless insisted by the tourist or a consensus reached by both sides. Tourists can demand a refund if they are charged extra.
“My boyfriend and I were very unhappy with the trip right from the second day. Our mood was ruined by the guide’s sulking face throughout the trip,” Shen told Shanghai Daily.
Shen said people who refused to buy the new packages were made to sit in the bus for long hours while the air conditioning was turned off.
“We don’t want any compensation, but we were very angry,” Shen said after she posted the video on her Weibo.
The female tourist, who bore the brunt of the guide’s anger, said she refused to buy the packages as she felt that the elephant ride may not be comfortable for her mother.
Shen said some of the 33-member tour members paid for the extra programs but she and few others refused.
A tour guide in Yunnan Province, who was filmed shouting at tourists after they did not spend enough, was fired earlier this month. Her license was revoked and she was banned from working as a guide for life. The travel agency she worked for in Kunming was also banned from operating for six months and fined 50,000 yuan.
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