Say No to Forced Shopping
Forced shopping is cancer in the organized tour business. It is very profitable for tour companies but also a main reason that many savvy travellers are hesitant to go on organized tours. Consumers with the means who happen to think their time is valuable should avoid operators engaged in such deplorable conduct.
Some China tour operators offering seemingly dirt-cheap tours say their tours are subsidized by the Chinese government and therefore they are obligated to take the tourists to the government-owned stores. This is a fraudulent claim, a rather cynical scheme to exploit the ignorance and credulity of consumers who can’t live without bargains. Anyone in their right mind should wonder why the Chinese government is interested in fleecing overseas tourists when they are so busy overseeing the world’s second largest economy. If they privatized all those factories decades ago, why would they want to hang on to tourist stores?
You may have read somewhere that all China tour companies include forced shopping stops in their tours because the operators don't have a choice. Such misinformation is understandable if it is from a credulous tourist duped by a tour company. If this nonsense comes from a tour company, you know you are dealing with a dishonest business.
Expensive tours do not necessarily guarantee that you will not be marched through tourist traps while the cheap ones, regardless of the operators' wild claims and promises, will certainly include repeated shopping stops, often in addition to a long list of optional programs offered at hugely inflated prices. They let the guides and drivers parade the groups through tourist stores so that they don’t have to pay the guides and drivers. Sometimes the guides and drivers have to pay the tour companies to buy the groups. In the end, the consumers get what they pay for – lots of time wasted at tourist stores, lousy food, cheap hotels located on the outskirts of urban centres, and tour guides with less than desirable knowledge and language skills. This may be the notion of a dream vacation for some, but definitely not for us.
Forced shopping is cancer in the organized tour business. It is very profitable for tour companies but also a main reason that many savvy travellers are hesitant to go on organized tours. Consumers with the means who happen to think their time is valuable should avoid operators engaged in such deplorable conduct.
Some China tour operators offering seemingly dirt-cheap tours say their tours are subsidized by the Chinese government and therefore they are obligated to take the tourists to the government-owned stores. This is a fraudulent claim, a rather cynical scheme to exploit the ignorance and credulity of consumers who can’t live without bargains. Anyone in their right mind should wonder why the Chinese government is interested in fleecing overseas tourists when they are so busy overseeing the world’s second largest economy. If they privatized all those factories decades ago, why would they want to hang on to tourist stores?
You may have read somewhere that all China tour companies include forced shopping stops in their tours because the operators don't have a choice. Such misinformation is understandable if it is from a credulous tourist duped by a tour company. If this nonsense comes from a tour company, you know you are dealing with a dishonest business.
Expensive tours do not necessarily guarantee that you will not be marched through tourist traps while the cheap ones, regardless of the operators' wild claims and promises, will certainly include repeated shopping stops, often in addition to a long list of optional programs offered at hugely inflated prices. They let the guides and drivers parade the groups through tourist stores so that they don’t have to pay the guides and drivers. Sometimes the guides and drivers have to pay the tour companies to buy the groups. In the end, the consumers get what they pay for – lots of time wasted at tourist stores, lousy food, cheap hotels located on the outskirts of urban centres, and tour guides with less than desirable knowledge and language skills. This may be the notion of a dream vacation for some, but definitely not for us.
