On October 19th, 2015, a tourist from mainland China had a dispute with her tour guide in a jewelry store in Hong Kong. A man got injured badly in his attempt to stop the quarrel, and sadly lost his life later in the hospital. So what caused this dispute? According to some witnesses, the tourist had pre-booked a very cheap tour to Hong Kong with an unreliable travel company, which included a visit to a store. Then during the following tour, she felt coerced by her tour guide to buy things from the store, which irritated the tourist and led to the conflict.
 

Nowadays, many travel agencies organize tour packages at an extremely low price to attract more customers. However, this is just a little stunt to attract the attention of consumers. If not seeing through the “free lunch”, visitors will easily get trapped. They may be offered terrible hotel rooms, bad foods, rushed schedules, and even be forced to designated stores and shop there. What’s worse, some travel agencies may charge additional fees during the trip and threaten to abandon the group members if they refuse to pay. As a result, tourists end up spending more for the visit and come back home with a rather bad mood.
  As an old Chinese saying goes, seek small gains but incur big losses. Undoubtedly, we all expect a nice pleasant trip at a reasonable price. If we are pushed to buy unnecessary things, traveling in a rush or offered poor food, how could we feel happy? Therefore, when choosing a tour itinerary, we should not only focus on the price, but also put more emphasis on the service quality.
    1. Choose reliable and reputable travel agencies. Be cautious not to be deluded by low prices and fancy wording. If an itinerary is sold at an unreasonably low price, there is a great possibility of being cheated by dirty tricks.
  2. Before starting the trip, confirm with the agency and sign a detailed contract concerning tourist spots to be visited, food and accommodation standards, vehicles to be used, and shops to go, and tour guide proficiency…
  3. Report to the police if you find yourself being cheated by an agency. Avoid quarrelling with the tour guide as much as possible.

As an expert in the tourism industry, TCG agrees that shopping is a pleasure when traveling around. However, we guarantee that we never force our clients to shop.