Tour prices surge following new law
Print Edition
Several Chinese travel agencies have raised tour package prices in response to the country’s first tourism law, which took effect on Tuesday, outlawing hidden costs such as shopping outings.
One travel website increased the price of its best-selling package — a four-day trip from Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province, to Hong Kong — from 2,500 yuan (US$409) to 4,088 yuan.
Tourists complained the move had dampened their enthusiasm for travel agencies.
“I’ve been traveling across the nation with travel agencies because their tour packages are cheap and the arrangements nice and convenient,” said a customer surnamed Xu from Nanjing.
“But now tour packages seem to have become a luxury.”
The new law stipulates that travel agencies cannot sell tourists trips at low prices and then make their profits through compulsory shopping trips or extra fees.
Previously, agencies would entice customers with low prices, said Li Guang, manager of the product assessment department of the China Travel Depot, a major tourism service provider in the country.
To make up the cash, activities requiring extra payment were often included in itineraries and tour operators earned commissions by arranging shopping trips, Li said.
With such practices outlawed, agencies have been forced to make hidden costs explicit, said Li.
Other factors for the price surge include the travel peak during Golden Week — which ends tomorrow — and rising accommodation costs, said Xu Xiaolei, vice head of the marketing department of the China Travel Depot.
Academics say the law will root out bad practices.
“The biggest winner will naturally be tourists,” said Wang Degang, head of the Tourism Management Department of Shandong University.
But some travel agents fear for their livelihoods.
A manager of a small travel agency in Shandong Province, surnamed Wang, who must cut carefully nurtured shopping links, fears the worst.
“With no shopping arrangements we can no longer afford to lower prices to attract clients,” said Wang. “So how can we compete with larger agencies?”
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