In latest months, a lot of ultra-cheap Hong Kong one-day tour packages have appeared on a sure second-hand buying and selling platform, with departures operating day-after-day.
The costs are so outrageous that even Hong Kong locals joke that they might be part of the tour simply to hitch an inexpensive trip.
On social media, some journey bloggers—pushed by curiosity—have tried the well-known “RMB 3 (about USD 0.4）Hong Kong day tour.” During the bus trip of greater than an hour, the tour information spent nearly the complete time selling three optionally available paid actions, every priced between RMB 150 and RMB 180（about USD 22 and USD 26).
Compared with the transient 20–half-hour spent checking in at scenic spots, vacationers stayed in designated purchasing shops for so long as an hour.
As one trade insider, Mr. A, put it: “A travel agency definitely loses money on a RMB 3 tour. The fee is basically symbolic. On these trips, guides usually don’t receive a service fee either. Their profit comes entirely from commissions on optional activities and shopping rebates. So you can imagine how much pressure they put on tourists.”
Wei Tang, a tour chief with greater than a decade of expertise, has seen many irregularities within the tourism market. In his view, low-price excursions have all the time existed, lately, they’ve shifted from offline storefronts to on-line platforms.
A more in-depth look reveals that most of the RMB 3 tour listings on second-hand platforms clearly specify their target viewers, corresponding to first-time guests or vacationers bringing aged members of the family and kids—teams whose consumption conduct is less complicated to foretell.
Tang additionally believes that the rise of short-video platforms and second-hand marketplaces has not directly supplied new customer-acquisition channels for these low-price excursions.
At the identical time, on-line visitors funnels not solely cut back distribution prices for native floor operators but additionally allow much more exact concentrating on.
“In the past, Hong Kong ground operators had to cooperate with mainland travel agencies. Channel commissions were unavoidable, along with various relationship-building and public-relations costs. Now much of that cost is gone,” Tang stated.
“There are more than a thousand county-level cities in mainland China. Information gaps will always exist and there will always be new ‘fat sheep.’”
