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According to the former tour guide, there is something fishy about the low-cost tour group of travel agencies: you can pay back the money through the "head fee"
People information
2021-1-1610: 40 official account of people's science and technology.
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"This article Source: Peninsula official website"
Wang Xin165438+1October 15 News A four-day and three-night cross-city tour, one person only needs less than 900 yuan. However, after joining the group, I found that traveling is like "business trip". I drag myself to the shopping store early every morning, but I can't stay long enough to let me go. Wang Xin understands that this kind of tour group is called "Pit Group" in the industry, and the travel agency that organizes the "Pit Group" itself does not take collecting tourists' tour fees as its profit point, but leads tourists to the shopping store to earn "head fee" and shopping share. "Travel agencies launch routes, third-party marketing companies promote customers, and shopping stores in the routes promote goods to tourists, forming a profit closed loop." Mr. Jiang, a former tour guide who has worked for many years, told reporters that by organizing a "pit group", travel agencies can get 30% or even more sales from shopping stores, and tour guides can also get 5%-6% commissions. Mr. Jiang said that the "Pit Group" seems cheap, but once it comes down, tourists often find themselves spending a lot on impulse, and this result was actually doomed when tourists signed up for the group.
(Source: Party)
I specifically asked not to enter the store and was dragged to the shopping store before 7 am.
In June this year, Ms. Zhou planned to travel to Qingdao with two old people and two children. When looking up the Raiders on the Internet, she saw the advertisement of Qingdao Hyatt International Travel Service: Four days and three nights to visit Weihai, Qingdao, and one person only needs 880 yuan. "Travel agencies are usually more familiar with local attractions. They can not only plan the best route, but also arrange hotel accommodation. There will also be a shuttle between the scenic spots and the hotel, which is much more convenient than going to road trip. " Thinking of this, Ms. Zhou was a little moved. However, Ms. Zhou has doubts about this kind of low-cost tour, so she specifically asked the customer service not to gather early in the morning before signing up. There is no shopping store, and the hotel is better. "I told the customer service that if these requirements cannot be met, you can choose one-on-one and the price is higher."
After the customer service readily agreed to her request, Ms. Zhou paid a deposit in 300 yuan, and made up the rest of the tour fee after arriving in Qingdao. However, when the tour officially started, Ms. Zhou failed to meet all the requirements of the travel agency: "At 6: 50 in the morning, I asked to meet at the shopping store and I was not allowed to come out for less than two hours. The prices of the promotional items in the shopping mall are attractive, but the quality is really unreasonable. I wanted to buy a piece of jade, but I didn't expect the jewelry on the stone to fall off at that time. "
Going to the shopping store at six or seven in the morning for two consecutive days made Ms. Zhou's family exhausted, and the trip ended in a bad experience. Coincidentally, Ms. Liu, a citizen, had a similar experience: "My family and I signed up for a double flight to Hong Kong and Macao. The tour fee was only a few hundred yuan, but there were a lot of shopping shops in the itinerary. Almost every time everyone enters the store, the staff of the shopping store will pull down the shutter door and block the cell phone signal, and it will take several hours to get out. In the end, each of us bought thousands of things, and some even bought tens of thousands of bracelets. The result is not worth the money at all. "
The low-priced group is a "pit group", and the travel agency can rely on the "head fee" of the shopping store to refund the money.
In recent years, low-cost tour groups that attract tourists by spelling prices have been repeatedly criticized. The fundamental reason is that the tour group has become a shopping group. The tour guide persuaded the tourists to buy at buy buy, from mattresses to accessories. Without exception, it has been blown into the sky, allowing tourists to "voluntarily" pay for it.
Mr. Jiang is a tour guide with 13 years' experience, and once served as a tour guide of Qingdao Hyatt International Travel Service, which Ms. Zhou joined. Speaking of the reasons for his resignation, Mr. Jiang is outspoken: "It is because the' pit group' of this travel agency is too pit."
Mr. Jiang told me that this kind of low-cost tour map that Ms. Zhou participated in was called "Pit Group" in the industry. Low price is the killer of travel agencies. Even some travel agencies don't charge tour fees, don't pay back money, and have to open a "pit group". "From the time when tourists searched for the information of' Pit Group' on the Internet, the routine of cheating money began."
Mr. Jiang said that this kind of "pit group" mostly uses the means of network promotion to attract tourists. When tourists search for tourist destinations online, there will be a lot of information to recommend signing up for the tour group, including the micro-signal of the tour guide and other contact information. These are all advertisements paid by travel agencies.
During the whole trip, the travel society arranged a number of shopping shops for the "pit group". As long as the tourists were taken to the shops, the travel agency could get the "head fee". If tourists have shopping expenses, the travel agency can get an extra one. "This is the real profit point. General travel agencies can get a 30% share, and tour guides can get 5%-6%. " In this way, whether it is a network promotion platform to attract customers, or a travel agency or a shopping store, it can stabilize profits, and only tourists are trapped.
Ms. Zhou came in June this year, which happened to be the tourist season in Qingdao. The per capita cost of a tour group should be around 1 1,000 yuan. During Ms. Zhou's trip, the travel agency arranged two shopping stores, Latex and Emerald. "In fact, the headcount fee given by the two stores can cover the cost. After the eleventh, the group added another shopping store, and the travel agency can also make a net profit from the shopping of the head of the third shopping store and tourists. " Mr. Zhou analyzed.
In addition to shopping consumption, the self-funded project of "Pit Group" is also a "sharp weapon to circle money" for travel agencies. Take the trip of Ms. Zhou's family as an example. There are five self-funded items, and the package price is 650 yuan per person. "It's voluntary, but if there are fewer paying guests, the tour guide will inevitably hit himself in the face. Everyone is happy to come out to play, especially those with children. No one will be unhappy, so basically everyone will buy it. "
Mr. Jiang provided an accounting statement of the internal division of labor of Qingdao Hyatt International Travel Service. The low-cost group 13 people spent a total of 39,555 yuan on shopping, and the division of labor of travel agencies was as high as 22,389.35 yuan. The self-paid amount is 6487 yuan, the tour guide can get 158 1 yuan, and the travel agency can get a profit of 3686 yuan.
It is not good for tourists to "bite their teeth without spending money" so that travel agencies and shops have long had a routine to deal with it.
In recent years, the true face of a low-priced "pit group" has been exposed by the media one after another, but in real life, there are still people who know it is a "pit group" and want to jump in-"If you bite the bullet, you won't pay, anyway, the tour guide can't force me." This is the psychological portrayal of some tourists who participated in the "pit group". These price-sensitive consumers usually don't take the quality of the trip as the first choice, thinking that as long as they can resist shopping or other self-funded items arranged by travel agencies, they can realize the original intention of low-cost travel. However, as an insider, Mr. Jiang said that tourists' psychological travel agencies have long understood. The so-called Tao is one foot high and the devil is ten feet high. No matter what kind of tourists, they can't escape the result of spending money on shopping.
"For example, in a shop selling jade, the boss claimed to have invited a lecturer from the south and invited tourists to attend classes. People don't force you to buy things, but you have to listen for two and a half hours. But you can come out early if you buy something. In this case, do you say that you pay? " Mr. Jiang said that most of these stores have "childcare". If one lecturer can't sell it, another lecturer will immediately become the boss, always shouting the original price of 8 thousand. Now selling it will make people feel that they will lose a lot if they don't buy it. This set of "combination boxing" has been handed down and almost no tourists can hold it. Even if they want to get a refund when they go home, because of the long distance and the difficulty in identification, most people can only suffer from dumb losses because of the mutual shirking between travel agencies and tour guides.
In addition, in order to ensure profitability, travel agencies that run "pit groups" are also very picky. In the internal quotation sent by Mr. Jiang, the travel agency divided the tour fare into several grades according to age, but the price was not indicated for the 28-68 age group. "This is based on shopping ability. Children and the elderly who are too old have no spending power and should be charged appropriately. People aged 28-68 are the main consumers, and the price is usually a' negative tour fee'. "
At the same time, there is another detail in this quotation sheet, that is, it is clearly stated that "pregnant women, disabled people, jewelry practitioners, Ejiao practitioners, travel peers, and the media industry are not welcome".
Qingdao has issued an honest travel guide price 30% lower than the guide price, which will be warned by the red.
In recent years, in response to the chaos in the tourism market, the relevant state departments have issued a series of regulations, laws and documents. 20 15 "opinions on cracking down on the organization of" unreasonable low-cost tour "was issued, which formally defined unreasonable low-cost tour: deviating from the law of value, lower than operating costs, attracting tourists with false prices, inducing consumption with false propaganda, and disrupting the market with unfair competition.
In order to further promote Qingdao's civilized tourism and resist unreasonable low-cost tourism and other illegal activities in the tourism market, this year Qingdao Tourism Association, Qingdao Travel Agency Association, Qingdao Tour Guide Association, Qingdao Senior Tourism Association and Qingdao Tourism Professionals Association jointly formulated and issued the honest tourism guide price for key tourist routes in Qingdao. It is reported that the guide price is determined by the five major tourism industry associations in Qingdao in conjunction with the cultural tourism department. After counting the normal prices of coaches, hotel rooms, restaurants and tickets, according to the actual situation of the industry. Its biggest highlight is that it can measure whether a tour group has the possibility of unreasonable low prices.
When the product price released by the travel agency is lower than the "guide price" 10%, it will enter a yellow warning, and relevant associations and municipal, district (city) cultural tourism authorities will interview it. When the product price released by the travel agency is lower than the "guide price" by 30%, it will enter a red warning, and the municipal, district (city) cultural tourism authorities will start the law enforcement procedures in time according to the relevant provisions of the Tourism Law of the People's Republic of China and other laws and regulations, and at the same time order the relevant products to be removed from the shelves.
The relevant person in charge of Qingdao Travel Agency Association said that the long-term existence of "unreasonable low-cost travel" products directly suppressed the market share of regular products of tourism enterprises, harmed the interests of tourists, damaged the image of the city, increased the probability of complaints and disputes, and worsened the business environment. Phenomenologically, "unreasonable low-cost travel" leads to disorderly competition, which in turn deepens the degree of disorderly competition. The person in charge also reminded that the telephone numbers for reporting "unreasonable low-cost travel" products are 1230 1 and 12345, and citizens should correctly identify the qualifications of travel agencies and sign contracts. Wang Xin reporter Wang Qi