Tour guides, stores are 'skin peeling' Chinese tourists?

Taiwan Living in Taiwan
1

:noway: :whistle:

[quote]The report found that with the increase of Chinese visitors, some unscrupulous operators of local handicraft stores were deliberately raising the prices of goods and services to Chinese consumers and passing on the extra earnings as bribes to tour guides for bringing in the Chinese customers.

Such “skin-peeling stores” have harmed consumers’ rights and damaged Taiwan’s tourism reputation, the report said.[/quote]

I’m kind of surprised to read this … this is a global common practice, Taiwanese, HK, Indonesian, Thai tour guides are ‘skin peeling’ their customers for decades on overseas tours …
Why? Because some have to buy their groups (yes, pay upfront money to their employer) and earn a low basic wage, surviving on tips (from clients) and kick backs (commissions) from stores … thereby making a more than average income. Certainly not all tours are goldmines, but if a few customers buy a Rolex on a tour … it makes a good commission.

So, why would they change this practice if they can do it at home …

BTW, I don’t think the stores are the bad guys here, my guess is that they had requests from tour guides … and their employer, the travel agencies. Which to my knowledge share in the kick back.

2

Back when there were no Chinese tourists, but there were some Taiwanese in China, the Chinese referred to the Taiwanese as idiots for the prices they would be willing to pay for things, and I certainly never noticed any hesitation in taking advantage of tourists there.
The practice may indeed be harming Taiwan’s reputation, but it is a case of the Chinese going “OMG, these unscrupulous Taiwanese are doing exactly the same things to us that we do to foreign tourists! How dare they!”

3

[quote=“bababa”]Back when there were no Chinese tourists, but there were some Taiwanese in China, the Chinese referred to the Taiwanese as idiots for the prices they would be willing to pay for things, and I certainly never noticed any hesitation in taking advantage of tourists there.
The practice may indeed be harming Taiwan’s reputation, but it is a case of the Chinese going “OMG, these unscrupulous Taiwanese are doing exactly the same things to us that we do to foreign tourists! How dare they!”[/quote]

That’s different, In China you had ‘Chinese’ prices and ‘foreigner and Taiwanese’ prices … it’s kind of leveling the playground …

What they do here, ‘skin peeling’ as the they now call it is common worldwide, travel agencies like to offer ‘cheap’ prices by presenting a basic package, all the rest, excursions, shopping, dinners, shows, boat rides are extra, money makers for tour guides (local and foreign) and their agencies. Mostly it’s ‘black’ money.

4

[quote=“Belgian Pie”][quote]The report found that with the increase of Chinese visitors, some unscrupulous operators of local handicraft stores were deliberately raising the prices of goods and services to Chinese consumers and passing on the extra earnings as bribes to tour guides for bringing in the Chinese customers.

Such “skin-peeling stores” have harmed consumers’ rights and damaged Taiwan’s tourism reputation, the report said.[/quote][/quote]
taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/ … 2003506159

5

I also think that it is really bad to skin peel Chinese tourists!! Tour guides are basically evil, who skin peeling all the tour groups, I think. But, as for the stores, the main reason for them to do so is that, besides some who are viciously greedy for earning, the majority of the mainland Chinese like to bargain, and they always cut the price half or even less to start with. If you travel to China, you would know what I am talking about. Many stores in Taiwan originally sell things for the “real” price, but recently they have experienced a really hard time dealing with Chinese tourists’ bargaining. This forced some stores to take action. I don’t like it at all! When I shop at the tourist’s places now, I feel I can’t trust the stores anymore. Feel bad about it~~~

6

Not just decades, but centuries.

Mark Twain mentions the practice in The Innocents Abroad.

7

If they don’t like it, they can always take their exceedingly loud Beijing accent alsewhere. Even better, how about claiming another island instead of Taiwan while they’re at it.

Sorry. No sympathy here. I’ve been on the receiving end of Mainlander “hospitality” before.

8

A Taiwanese friend of mine recently told me that if you’re under 24 or over 70 and go on a group tour to Thailand, you have to pay an additional $4000 per person because people of those ages tend not to spend money in the official tour stores.

9

They deserve the price gouging. 己所不欲，勿施於人.

If they want to wave their money around and be haughty about how they are special and able to visit Taiwan, then I don’t see the problem charging them more money, they do it to everyone else. I have to bargain down a bottle of water in Beijing because they tell me 1.5 kuai, and they think I’m blind to the 1 kuai price tag underneath it. Then they try to say it’s 5 mao more because it was in the fridge. I’m sick of that now. I just put down what I know it costs and walk away.

About shopping here at tourist shops… I just came back from Green Island not too long ago, and there were an insane amount of Mainlanders there. I just level with the people in the shops, speak Taiyu a little jokingly, and the price becomes normal again. One of the workers told me that the people on the island know in advance when the Mainlanders are coming, and they change all the prices in the store. When the Mainlanders leave, they change them back. Pretty funny.

10

I’d heard that the Chinese travel agencies were a bit “delinquent” in paying their bills to the Taiwanese tour operators. Maybe this is a good way to recoup their costs.

But I also think that’s common practice around the world for tour guides to get a commission for bringing a bus load of customers to a shop or restaurant.

11

Every time I’ve gone on a tour guide in any city in any country (which, admittedly is only like three times, I prefer to explore a city myself, but there was a few times I was dragged along on one) they always end at some store that ends up being more expensive than similar stores nearby. I never buy anything in these stores, though I would eat something if they brought us to a restaurant, but I figured this was a part of the assumed experience. Of course they are going to try to get more from tourists, some of which are happy to oblige because either they like the convenience, or some perceived implication of quality or just plain gullibility. I always thought that this was a part of being a tourist, that if you want to find a good price on anything you need to either look hard for it or haggle for the “local price”. Perhaps because most of my traveling experience is limited to Europe and the Americas, save for a two week trip in Japan, but I don’t see the issue here, I thought this was a universally understood aspect of traveling abroad?

12

I’m no fan of Chinese tourists. My experiences with them elsewhere have not been pleasant. However, I really dislike this. I find it really distasteful in any country where they have a “rip off the foreigners” approach to tourism. Of course, it happens to one degree or another, but I’ve been to plenty of countries where it’s not common knowledge at least (and where locals also get hit with the same outrageous prices, at least if they pay the price on the price tag).

I thought that Taiwan wasn’t really very guilty of this, or at least not nearly as guilty as plenty of other countries.

  • 1 Taiwan :frowning:
13

When my parents went on a similar tour offered by the hotel they were at in China, most of the tour group walked off the tour and went exploring themselves. They complained about them just being taken to high price stores. They enjoyed the time away from the tour bus much more.

14

Scarcely a surprise, and certainly for the tourists themselves. It’s the norm to fleece anyone from out of town in China, which is why the savvy get a local to buy whatever they want. Doesn’t matter if you’re a northerner, southerner, or even a big nose, you’re not local, and you’ll not pay local prices. I think some foreigners get a little worked up that they are being singled out for their race on prices, when in fact it happens to everybody. No racism here.

Mainlanders have been fleeced mercilessly here in HK, with one rather memorable occasion where a family paid several times the real value for a camera on Nathan Road, complained about it in the mainland media, and were brought back for an all expenses paid return visit by the South China Morning Post and were promptly cheated mercilessly by someone else! A nice bit of PR work totally squandered. :laughing:

Mainland tour groups often take the boat out to the island I live on in HK. There’s a slow and cheaper ferry, and a fast ferry that takes half the time but costs double the price. Needless to say the tourists are all pre-booked for the slow boat. Every now and then the tour guides mistime things, and the tourists arrive in time to get the fast boat, and invariably a near brawl erupts when they are told they have to wait for the slower boat! :laughing:

Having said that, the tour guides are scum.

As for the Taiwanese. I remember catching a train in China many years ago, around the time Taiwanese were first allowed in on tour groups. I was put in a carriage with a Taiwanese tour guide. Having been in China for six months, the way the Taiwanese were flashing loot about, and absolute wads of it, was truly shocking, as was the incredible amount of tourist rubbish they’d bought.

The infamous Qiandao Lake incident happened a couple of years later, and to be honest, as horrible as it was, I wasn’t completely surprised. Essentially a boat loaded with 23 Taiwanese on a tour group was robbed, the hatches were shut and the boat set alight killing all on board. The incident, and the way the mainland cops bungled the inquiry, was a major further boost for Taiwan independence at the time. There were strong rumours that similar to the jewellery store shootings in HK around that time, members of the PLA were involved.

HG

15

If I had to deal with Chinese tourists in my restaurant I would definately want to charge them more or not allow them in at all. Why? Well lets see, they are often obnoxious to a level I find difficult to articulate and can be pretty much expected to drop rubbish everywhere, waste time bartering like idiots even when the price is normal (yes, in restaurants, I have encountered it already), can basically be expected to push others arround harder than a rugby scrum etc etc you get the idea. I am pretty sure my wait staff would quit within the week if not paid a lot if they were not paid a lot to put up with that kind of garbage.

16

Haha. Imagine that. Different surcharges for different nationalities. Chinese pay an extra surcharge for being cocks. Japanese get a discount for being very polite. There’s something appealing about it, and yet it still seems a little off.

17

It’s unfair to polite mainlanders, and a bonus to rude Japanese.

18

I can’t figure what this thread is about.
Getting tour buses full of tourists can be a disaster for a restaurant.
All these people at once.
Only for a 45 minutes stay.
All the tables dirty, and most of them had a soda only.
Half the silverware is missing , sorry chopsticks here in Taiwan.
Your regular costumers are scared and leave, never come back.
The kitchen gets huge orders all at once and can’t maintain quality unless they hire more people. That does not make much sense for the 3 hours in question.
If you decided running your business this way, than it is perfectly normal to charge more.
I know a restaurant owner who put his competitors onto a travel guide to ruin their business and he told me that it worked.

19

Then his competitors were idiots. If they got that much extra business on a regular basis, they could/should have adapted their businesses to take advantage of that.

20

Honestly this thread makes me a tad sad. I have many mainland colleagues and friends that have never bought the Taiwan is ours bullshit and have wanted to visit the place to see how uniquely different it is having grown out of a somewhat different set of historical circumstances.

To a person they are always impressed. unfortunately those with other foreign passports get to travel individually, and obviously get the best experience, but those obliged to travel in groups miss Taiwan’s best asset, It’s people.
Well, other than the scammers.

HG