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dairyairy
Joined: 17 May 2012
Location: South Korea
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 Posted: Wed May 29, 2013 1:26 pm Post subject: Cheap Korean tours cheating Chinese tourists |
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Just like the ripoff taxis at the airports, the claims that the government is unaware of these practices is hard to believe.
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/culture/2013/05/386_136544.html
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Korea is experiencing a boom in international tourism, recently achieving a milestone mark of 10 million tourist arrivals, mainly from China and neighboring Asian countries, driven by the attractions of the �hallyu� or Korean wave.
But cheap inbound tour packages are threatening to tarnish Korea's image and potentially slow down the global �hallyu� trend.
Keen to attract tourists, the government�s tourism agency has worked to advertize the charms of Korea, but less attention is being given to the quality of the tours.
Examples of these are the �dirt-cheap� package deals mainly targeting Chinese tourists, in which Korean tour agencies, due to fierce competition to attract tourists, cut deals with Chinese agencies at prices below breakeven costs.
�I desired to experience Korea. But I didn�t have enough time. During the 4-night-5-day stay, I visited five or six shopping malls, selling ginseng, laver and crystals,� said a Chinese woman, 32, asking not to be named.
�On the night we arrived, the tour guide didn�t take us to proper accommodation but to a �Jjimjil Bang� (Korean sauna). And things were different from the schedule,� said another Chinese tourist with the surname Anjin.
A China-based travel agency employee, surnamed Zhu, said the six-day trip from Tianjin to Korea sells at around $400, including airfare, hotel and meals. Given that the average discount airfare is $200, this means that tourists can spend six days here on a meager budget of $200.
This is possible because Korean agencies managing inbound tourists bear the rest of the costs. The agencies are said to have their own means to recoup their supposed losses.
They resort to measures such as price-gouging, low quality accommodation, offering cheap meals and arranging visits to shops that give higher commissions to tour guides and other dodgy deals.
A "buffet restaurant" in Sajik-dong, central Seoul, is one restaurant reputed to serve low-quality meals to Chinese tourists.
�They only accept Chinese tourists on package deals, but not local people,� said a security guard of the building, throwing a puzzled look.
Despite its name, it is nothing close to a typical buffet. It has neither food stands nor people queuing with plates on their hands. Instead the shoddy looking restaurant has the owner positioned at the entrance, mainly to restrict access to locals.
Packed in, were a small band of Chinese clustered around a single dish. Everything is written in Chinese from menus to reservation books on the counter.
When the reporter of The Korea Times approached, the owner blocked the view and pushed them into the elevator, refusing to comment.
Also, instead of upscale duty-free shops, the unscrupulous tour guides bring tourists into small-scale duty-free shops, which offer them high commissions in return for bringing in the tour groups.
Commissions range from 20 to 30 percent for duty-free shops, while ginseng stores offer up to 50 percent, according to an industry watcher.
�In the worst cases, tourists have three brief stops, before spending the rest of the day at shops. Can you imagine visiting ginseng stores, health supplements shops, duty-free cosmetics shops, and then specific shops at the airport all in one day?� Zhu asked.
�Then other days include visits to a crystal factory, souvenir shops, and some more duty-free shops.�
As for accommodation, Zhu said even if the initial itinerary states that there will be a four-star hotel, however, the hotels are changed once the tourists arrive. Since the agencies never list the name of the hotels, the tourists are not really aware of the downgrade.
�This is not good for Korea because it creates a bad impression of Korea among foreign tourists,� she said.
All of these are taking a toll on the nation�s reputation. When Seoul City government asked tourists to score their visits on the scale of one to five, with five being the highest, in 2011, Chinese gave a 4.02 point on average.
The score is lower than those given by tourists who visit other places such as the United States, United Kingdom and the Middle East with 4.46, 4.42, and 4.41 respectively.
�The vicious circle persists ― receiving commission, cheap packages with �forced� optional tours and declining tourist satisfaction. This results is lowering the revisit rate among tourists,� Shim Weon-seop, researcher of the Tourism Policy Division of the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute, said in a recent interview.
�It is imperative to deal with cheap package tours, to attract 20 million tourists,� he added.
According to the 2013 survey released by the Korea Tourism Organization, foreign tourists filed a total 897 complaints in 2012. Among them, tourists from greater China area comprising China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, reported 406 cases or 37 percent.
Of the total 406 cases reported by the Chinese tourists, complaints about tour agencies accounted for 60 cases or 15 percent, the second highest following complaints about shopping with 124 cases or 30 percent.
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PEIGUY
Joined: 28 Mar 2004
Location: Omokgyo
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| Posted: Wed May 29, 2013 4:34 pm Post subject: |
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| If the package is cheap what do they expect? It's the travelers fault for choosing such a package. Now, if the operator falsely advertised what one would get with the package than that's a different story. But, of course the Korea Times reporter cannot dig deeper. |
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12ax7
Joined: 07 Nov 2009
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| Posted: Wed May 29, 2013 10:22 pm Post subject: |
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| Price gouging for 'optional' packages and multiple stops at souvenir shops are part of every cheap tour, not only those to South Korea. My wife and I are good at getting out of these schemes. We'll tell our tour guide that we want to walk around instead of getting one of the overpriced packages and then make our own reservations at a third to a quarter of the cost. In order not to waste a day visiting gift shops and factory stores, we warn the other tourists about the practice and suggest we could pitch in 5 dollars each to tip the tour guide and the driver so that they bring us to a proper department store or duty free shop instead. |
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dairyairy
Joined: 17 May 2012
Location: South Korea
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| Posted: Thu May 30, 2013 12:47 am Post subject: |
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| These "tours" are just scams and if a Korea Times reporter can find them then government inspectors can find them, too. |
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nukeday
Joined: 13 May 2010
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| Posted: Thu May 30, 2013 9:54 pm Post subject: |
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It's what the Chinese are used to. Sounds exactly like a tour in China - for foreign tourists and locals alike.
What could you possibly expect for $400? |
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PatrickGHBusan
Joined: 24 Jun 2008
Location: Busan (1997-2008) Canada 2008 -
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| Posted: Fri May 31, 2013 3:59 am Post subject: |
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Good lord, go to Cuba on an "all included" vacation and see all that ends up being "optional but you need to pay for it". 
I swear sometimes I think some peopkle sound like they just fell off the turnip truck.
The price for that tour makes it obvious extras will be required. Jebus Kripes...come on people. |
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optik404
Joined: 24 Jun 2008
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| Posted: Fri May 31, 2013 5:44 am Post subject: |
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| This seems like common sense. $400 for six days including airfare. I mean, come on... |
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northway
Joined: 05 Jul 2010
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| Posted: Sat Jun 01, 2013 10:32 am Post subject: |
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| This sounds exactly the same as the cheap package tours from Seoul to Beijing. My buddies were brought to a freaking mattress factory! |
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some waygug-in
Joined: 25 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Sat Jun 01, 2013 11:07 am Post subject: |
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You never know when you might want to pack an extra mattress in
your carry-on. |
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12ax7
Joined: 07 Nov 2009
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| Posted: Sat Jun 01, 2013 5:29 pm Post subject: |
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| northway wrote: |
| This sounds exactly the same as the cheap package tours from Seoul to Beijing. My buddies were brought to a freaking mattress factory! |
Yes, but it wasn't just any old mattress factory, it was a latex mattress factory. They also made pillows.
We took that tour almost 5 years ago, our first tour with a Korean travel agency. It's on that tour that we learned of the ridiculous obligatory stops. I still found a way to get out of that stop as fast as possible: I told the one lady on the tour who showed some interest in getting pillows that she could get the same exact ones on Gmarket (maybe even made at that very factory) for half the price (I knew that for a fact because I had bought one just a few weeks earlier). |
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northway
Joined: 05 Jul 2010
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| Posted: Sun Jun 02, 2013 5:34 am Post subject: |
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| 12ax7 wrote: |
| northway wrote: |
| This sounds exactly the same as the cheap package tours from Seoul to Beijing. My buddies were brought to a freaking mattress factory! |
Yes, but it wasn't just any old mattress factory, it was a latex mattress factory. They also made pillows.
We took that tour almost 5 years ago, our first tour with a Korean travel agency. It's on that tour that we learned of the ridiculous obligatory stops. I still found a way to get out of that stop as fast as possible: I told the one lady on the tour who showed some interest in getting pillows that she could get the same exact ones on Gmarket (maybe even made at that very factory) for half the price (I knew that for a fact because I had bought one just a few weeks earlier). |
My friends bailed on all the BS the last day and got ratted out to he tour operator by some Korean folks. They tried to catch a cab into the heart of he city at night and were told that taxis didn't go to hat particular hotel. Whole thing seems not really worth it. |
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Julius
Joined: 27 Jul 2006
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| Posted: Sun Jun 02, 2013 6:54 am Post subject: |
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| PEIGUY wrote: |
| If the package is cheap what do they expect? It's the travelers fault for choosing such a package. |
But aren't they being decieved as to what the tour contains?
if ROK govt wants to protect its fledgling tourism industry they need to clamp down on these type of operators.
Korea is relatively new on the world tourism stage but already they're getting a bad rep- through most of east asia. |
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SeoulGerman
Joined: 09 Feb 2012
Location: Yeoksam-dong
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| Posted: Sun Jun 02, 2013 7:15 pm Post subject: |
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Sounds like virtually every package tour ever.
If you're not willing / able to do things independently you run the risk of one of these 'tours.'
My friend got married and had the customary 신혼여행 (in Hawaii) - they paid around 6 million (flights included what a bargain!) and whilst they didn't elaborate as to exactly why it was so terrible (the emotional trauma is still etched into their faces - they did seem to have a lot of coffee and souvenirs) they said they'd have been better off going to Jeju.
I must say I have to agree with them.
The ones to really steer clear of are the 도깨비 여행.
One day 3 nights in Shanghai / Tokyo / somewhere else close - get no sleep and spend the whole day being paraded (with obligatory hat / sash) around overpriced 'local' (ie. tourist) markets and specialty (ie. crap they can't sell to anyone else) shops. |
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MoneyMike
Joined: 03 Dec 2008
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| Posted: Sun Jun 02, 2013 8:02 pm Post subject: |
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It isn't just tourists who are treated like this, at least for some of the things they mentioned. I went to Jeju with most of the teachers from my school during my first year here, and other than the food it was mostly what they describe. Go to a place, see a bit, then sit down for a sales presentation to get you to try to buy the ginseng or whatever they're selling. What's odd is that for the most part the Koreans I was with seemed to be enjoying it.
Maybe they don't realize how lame this kind of tour is?
"Damned foreigners are always complaining about our tours! Don't they know we take them to the best tourist traps and sales presentations?!? Jeez, show some appreciation!" |
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Julius
Joined: 27 Jul 2006
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| Posted: Mon Jun 03, 2013 7:57 am Post subject: |
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| MoneyMike wrote: |
Go to a place, see a bit, then sit down for a sales presentation to get you to try to buy the ginseng or whatever they're selling. What's odd is that for the most part the Koreans I was with seemed to be enjoying it.
Maybe they don't realize how lame this kind of tour is? |
You're probably onto something there.
The Korean concept of tourism is superficial and does not seem to extend beyond an exercise in group-bonding, accompanied by eating Korean food. The buying of cheap gifts or souvenirs to show off later seems to be the most important part of the excursion. |
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