Per reporter: Yang Hui Per editor: Wen Duo
Image source: Daily Economic News Infographic
Sleep at 0 o'clock and get up at 6 o'clock, get up early and shop in the dark; The actual itinerary is very different from the pure play promised by sales...
In addition to the reality of "price increases" and the sensationalism of "quacks", some tourists who have recently gone to Thailand have also encountered various tourism chaos that the mainland has been vigorously rectifying.
On March 24, the reporter of "Daily Economic News" interviewed the operator of the self-media number "Filter Crusher" by telephone and other means. Recently, the operator of the number went to Thailand to evaluate and travel with a group, and encountered various unpleasantness.
The reception staff even said bluntly on the bus: "We only care about what, how much service fee you give us when you come to our place, how much (money) can I earn on you." ”
Behind the poor travel experience is the rust of the entire tourism industry chain to Thailand in 3 years:
The "middlemen" who fish in troubled waters are linked one by one;
A large number of tourism workers in Thailand have been lost, and some of the receiving agencies have gone bankrupt;
At present, it is difficult for tourism practitioners to meet the current large tourism demand.
Today, it is a painful period for the recovery of Thailand's tourism infrastructure. In the eyes of practitioners, such a recovery process will take at least a few months.
"We only care how much money you can make"
Before the resumption of outbound travel, countless practitioners were hoping that the market would improve, but at the same time worried that products that disrupted the market would reappear, disrupting the reputation of the recovery period. Liu Yusong, general manager of Shenzhou International Travel Service Store, has repeatedly talked about communicating with reporters that he hopes that practitioners in the early stage of restoration can pay attention to protecting word of mouth and not messing with the market.
However, as soon as the horn of outbound tourism sounded, the illegal operation that had been silent for a long time rushed into the market with tourists.
On March 9, Xiong BoBo, the evaluator of the self-media number "Filter Crusher", and others stepped on a plane to Thailand. The purpose of their trip is to Thailand for assessment and group tours. Xiong Bobo said that because of the popularity of outbound travel, due to factors such as language and strategy difficulty, most people will still choose to follow the group when they go abroad for the first time.
Recalling the whole process, Xiong Bobo told the "Daily Economic News" reporter that he was recommended by the "Platinum Diamond Tour" on Xiaohongshu and signed up for a landing group called "Thailand 6 Days 5 Nights In-depth Tour", with destinations including Bangkok and Pattaya. The landing group fare is 1,880 yuan per person, but the air ticket is at his own expense - the ticket cost for him and his colleagues to and from Thailand is 11,200 yuan.
"The group is found on Xiaohongshu, and we think that the channel of Xiaohongshu is not the traditional path for the elderly to report tour groups, (so) it should not be the kind (shopping group) for the elderly."
Evaluate the team tour items selected by bloggers Image source: video screenshot
Xiong Bobo said that before the trip to Thailand, he repeatedly confirmed with the sales who claimed to be a regular travel agency whether he would be taken to shop. The other party said that some informal small travel agencies in Thailand do operate in this way, but they are earth receiving agencies and will not operate in this way. The itinerary that the other party showed to Xiong BoBo was also pure play. However, the sales did not sign a contract with Xiong BoBo, and only received a deposit of 200 yuan, saying that he would sign the contract with the ground after landing in Thailand.
Sell the itinerary plan given before Image source: video screenshot
However, after landing, Xiong Bobo said: "The small group of 10 people who said good became a large group of 24 people." When the contract was signed, the list of projects included "Rough Stone Museum" and "Human Snake War". "At first glance, I thought it was two games, so I signed a contract. But it turned out that the Rough Museum was a mall selling gemstones and gold and silver jewelry. 'Human snake wars' are pulled for medical examinations and then sold drugs. ”
Although not a small group as promised, the composition of the workforce does fit with BoBo's previous thinking: at least 50% are young or middle-aged, and there are only three or four elderly people.
Next is the common routine: go to bed at 0 o'clock and get up at 6 o'clock, get up early and go to the shopping point; The actual itinerary is very different from the pure play promised by sales... On the most exaggerated day, Xiong BoBo's itinerary was only 1 hour, and he was hinted to withdraw from the tour by the tour guide if he did not participate in the self-funded project. The reception staff said bluntly on the bus: "We only care about what, how much service fee you give us when you come to our place, how much service fee I can earn on you." ”
What makes Xiong BoBo and other tourists unacceptable is that the tour fee they paid plus self-funded items and other expenses has exceeded 3,000 yuan, but they still have not received good service and experience.
Travel agents claim to have been impersonated Who is fishing in troubled waters?
Tourists pay the tour fee, why are they still treated like this? Under the camera, the tour guide said "heavenly machine": "The tour fee you paid... We don't have that much money. ”
A netizen who claimed to be a former tourism practitioner left a message under the video speculating: "This kind of group is bought by unqualified people, and he needs to give travel social money to buy you people (tourists) according to the head." If you don't buy something, don't tip at your own expense, he loses money. ”
Netizen messages under the "Filter Crusher" video Image source: network screenshot
This message can be seen from two views: first, the current market may have a situation where practitioners pull people from multiple channels to receive local companies; The second is that someone "buys" tourists in the middle, hoping to pull tourists to shopping points or self-funded projects to make up for costs and make a profit.
The first point is the same as the situation encountered by tourists such as BoBo the bear. According to him, the members of the team come from all over the country, and the "first-hand" information they are exposed to is inconsistent. Some people saw the information on Xiaohongshu, and there were also those who "passionately ordered" in the Douyin live broadcast room, some couples, and some "little brothers" who came from Henan alone. The amount of tour fees paid varies from high to low, and the items promised vary. But in the end, they were all sent to the same pick-up agency, except for the different sizes of hotels where some of the group members stayed, and the rest of the itinerary was exactly the same.
Who is the "middleman"?
Judging from the information provided by Xiong BoBo, a total of 3 travel agencies appeared on their itinerary.
The first and second travel agencies are all from the mouth of the sales of "Tong Tong", which is also the person who sends the itinerary to Xiong BoBo and collects the deposit. Tong Tong claims to work for Youtai, the overseas branch of CTS Sands (hereinafter referred to as "CTS Sands"), which is described as the largest local ground reception agency in Thailand. During the chat, Tong Tong also issued two business licenses.
However, after returning to China, when Xiong BoBo contacted CITS Sands by phone, the other party said that his qualifications were public on the Internet, and he would be used fraudulently, and he could not control it. In addition to BoBo the bear, they have received several similar complaints. The phone calls for children who sold children were never answered.
According to the information of the third-party inquiry platform, CTS Sands' business scope is inbound tourism business and domestic tourism business, and there is no outbound tourism business, and it has no overseas branches.
Sansan (pseudonym), the head of a Beijing travel agency, who did not want to be named, said that the key to such tourism disputes still depends on which party signs the contract, and uses the tourism contract as the basis for rights protection. Xiong BoBo told the "Daily Economic News" reporter that the Thai travel agency Youtai who signed the contract with him tried to ask the other party for an explanation, but Youtai said that it was the sales staff who made the project and service commitments, and they could not make these promises.
The third travel agency is the enterprise used by Tong Tong to collect deposits, and its name is: Hainan Hengcai International Travel Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Hainan Hengcai").
Image source: Daily Economic News Infographic
According to the third-party information inquiry platform, Hainan Hengcai International Travel Co., Ltd. was established in 2020 and is located in Haikou City, and its business scope includes tourism business, private entry and exit intermediary services, etc., of which there is no outbound tourism and inbound tourism business. According to the information of the National Tourism Supervision Service Platform, the legal representative of Hainan Hengcai is Lin Shengyan and obtained the license in April 2022.
On the morning of March 27, the reporter of "Daily Economic News" dialed Hainan Hengcai's phone. The operator said that the travel agency only accepts Hainan teams, does not do Thailand tours, does not pick up and drop off groups to Thailand, is not the "platinum diamond tourism" on Xiaohongshu, does not know Chengdu CTS Sands, and does not know Youtai. As for why the payee will show as Hainan Hengcai, the employee responded; "(Collection information) There may be someone misusing us, you directly ask the other party, Hainan Hengcai only accepts Hainan groups, why does the deposit use Hengcai to receive?"
As for the other question, is someone "scalping" tourists in the middle?
In this regard, Liu Yusong, general manager of Shenzhou International Travel Service Store, told the "Daily Economic News" reporter that this kind of phenomenon has existed before. "Some overseas tour guides, including some Thai tour guides, don't talk about making money normally, they also have to take money to buy tours themselves, and then take tourists to shop and consume, which has always been the case before."
Why are tourists from Tiannanhai North crammed together?
Sansan introduced that this form is called "landing group", that is, the same local operator in the same itinerary throughout the country to pick up passengers, after arriving in Thailand automatically put together a group, this model in China. "But their (the above-mentioned ground pick-up agency) this operation is unreasonable, first of all, they did not inform the tourists that they were participating in the group, and secondly, they did not inform the tourists of the real itinerary of the ground pickup, but only promised to 'customize' according to the tourists' preferences to do a hammer sale."
On social platforms, some netizens said that they were told similar words by "Platinum Travel" and wanted to expose the account.
After opening the homepage of "Platinum Tourism", the reporter of "Daily Economic News" found that there was no promotional information related to Thailand and outbound travel on the account.
In order to verify the video content of "Filter Crusher", the reporter asked in a private message whether the number had overseas group tour services, and a staff member who claimed to undertake customized tours in Thailand added a reporter, saying that he could provide Thailand tour products. When asked about the content in Filter Shredder, the salesman said that they were not offering group tours.
However, the 9-day reference itinerary of the "independent trip" sent by the sales was fully arranged from meals to play items, and it was 3~5 families at that time, forming the so-called "free trip with partners", otherwise it would need to be privately customized.
The loss of tour guides, the closure of ground reception agencies The recovery of the industrial chain will take time
What is the reason behind concealing the real itinerary and bringing tourists together?
Mumu (pseudonym), who runs a homestay in Thailand, told reporters that this may be related to the current loss of personnel and insufficient supply in Thailand's tourism industry. "In the first two years, the Thai tourism market was really bleak, and the entire street that used to be 'difficult to find a store' was closed (in the early stage of the epidemic), all with signs for rent."
During that time, a large number of practitioners engaged in tourism around Mumu, especially those who were connecting with Chinese tourists, were unemployed and changed careers. So far, not all the lost personnel have returned to work.
"I'm having a hard time finding Chinese tour guide right now." Mumu told reporters that he recently received many applications from domestic friends to travel to Thailand, hoping to help find Chinese tour guides, but several tour guides who had previously cooperated with him had changed careers and were not willing to "turn back". Mumu's city is basically based on agriculture and tourism, and after the development of tourism stagnated, everyone went to Bangkok and other big cities to work.
Although Mumu noticed that the tourism industry was recalling practitioners at the end of last year, in her opinion, the existing tourism practitioners still cannot cope with the current large volume and demand for tourism inquiries.
"Especially during the epidemic, many (Thai) local operators have closed, and there are few who can survive, and now is a period of green and yellow, and there are not many ground operators still operating, resulting in many different channels on the Internet selling products of the same local operator." Mumu said.
Liu Yusong told reporters that among the current problems, in addition to the incomplete recovery of flights, the main thing is that the tourism infrastructure of local service Chinese in Thailand still needs to be restored, especially hotels.
"In the past, there were a lot of teams in China, and some hotels were dedicated to receiving Chinese, and low unit prices and volume were their common characteristics. [But] these hotels haven't opened for three years, and the capacity is predictable. Considering that the local reception capacity has yet to be restored, Liu Yusong will even discuss with tourists to postpone the travel date, "It is expected that by May and June, the market environment will be much better." ”
Or take BoBo Xiong as an example, the food and accommodation conditions he experienced in Thailand also reflect the current reception capacity.
From the perspective of accommodation, according to Xiong BoBo, a hotel in Pattaya where he stayed is specially designed to provide services for Chinese tourists. "The hall was full of Chinese and Chinese, and the parking lot was almost full of tourist buses. The environment of the hotel looks relatively old on the outside, the words on the signboard have been lost, the room and bathroom drains are full of hair, and the mattress is covered with continuous brown stains on the core. ”
Source: "Filter Crusher" video screenshot
In addition, according to the experience feedback of Xiong BoBo and other tourists, the ingredients for group meals are also difficult to keep fresh.
Liu Yusong told reporters that these chaos with group tours actually depends on the strength of domestic docking travel agencies. For different domestic travel agencies, the degree of attention paid to ground connection is not the same. "Like us, now every group is a treasure, and we will agree with wholesalers and ground receivers to pay the tour fee in full before leaving the group, and there is no long account period."
But to pay the tour fee in full, it is not easy to do it between domestic travel agencies, who have cash on hand "very tight".
For example, among several large expenditures, aviation resources are the most important part of travel agencies, and if there is no large traffic, travel agencies will be unable to move an inch. In order to compete for this resource, sometimes you have to take a lot of risks - such as "cutting the position".
"Cut the position", one of the "jargon" of the travel circle.
Specifically, the cooperation between travel agencies and airlines is generally long-term, and can be divided into two dimensions according to time, one is the season and the other is the year. Among them, the season cycle is half a year, and the year is a whole year. After the expiration of the period, it will be decided whether to renew it according to the wishes of both parties. In seasonal and annual partnerships, travel agents are required to pay a percentage of the deposit in advance, and each airline has different requirements for the amount of deposit.
Cutting means that travel agencies need to buy out a certain number of airline seats in advance for sale to tourists, and such cut seats are often non-refundable and cannot be cancelled. Some airlines that maintain routes with China require travel agencies to charter a certain number of tickets in advance. "In fact, it mainly involves charter flights, chartered flights need to be cut in advance, and cutting positions requires full buyout, which is at the risk of travel agencies."
In addition to using money to "gamble" on the position, there are still many unclear accounts for domestic travel agencies.
Liu Yusong told the "Daily Economic News" reporter that the current trust crisis in the industry is very serious, travel agencies and suppliers, suppliers and ground agencies owe each other debts, even if the prosecution has no money can be enforced, there are many frictions and contradictions between each other, these problems have not been solved, even if outbound travel resumes now, these contradictions are still there, and will definitely appear in the future. "To solve this contradiction, I think the market still needs to be adjusted by the market to solve this contradiction."
(Intern Zhang Yilei also contributed to this article)
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