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Q: Has anyone gone abroad with a Chinese tour group?
I recently saw an advertisement for a trip to Seoul with a tour group. The price of the whole tour(fight and room + whatever else) was cheaper than the flight by itself. If I signed up, do you think I could get out of doing all the crappy things Chinese tourists do? Would I have to pretend I was sick every morning and then go off on my own? How do they control the group?
9 years 51 weeks ago in Transport & Travel - China
Scan is right. Don't even think! You will have perfectly wonderful memories of the tour if you went.
If I had a blog with a lot of followers, I would do it for the fun of it, and the golden blogging opportunity. Else, I would skip it, I don't like things to much planned when I travel.
If you ever had a field trip with your company, it can gives you an idea of how it would go. I had such experience (field trip), it was not horrible, just very dull. Sharing the bedroom with a colleague was ... an interesting experience, but I don't want to hurt feelings so I won't relate that.
Just going on two day trips with Chinese tour companies was bad enough. The first time was pretty bad but I gave them the benefit of the doubt but when the second was even worse it put me off Chinese tour groups for ever. I can't imagine how bad it would be to be stuck in group for a week or more.
There's a say in IT that quotes: If you're not paying for it, then you are the product.
Chinese tours are gold for travel agencies and local businesses. It's a guarantee of a steady feed of cows to milk.
Crap hotels, crap food, and just enough time for taking photos here and there between hours of bus travel and sponsored shopping sessions.
That's it, because that's the only thing people who sign for these tours care about: having enough trophies to show off at the best price. Don't expect any enjoyability.
Scandinavian:
That is a good point, the tour is most likely partly funded by kickbacks from the AMAZING restaurants and souvenir shops you will be forced to visit where the bus will not leave until everyone has spent some money.
KimOnach:
I'm not an insider, but my guess would be the price tag covers the costs (often, plane and parts of hotels are booked exclusively by the agencies) and the kickbacks are the real margin.
If you knew everyone in the group, and the group wasn't too large, then it might not be too bad. I did this my first year in China. The boss arranged a small 2 -day company group outing to Zhoushan islands off the coast of Ningbo, and it wasn't bad!
But, more often than not, it'll be a group of 30+ people from different regions of China being shepherded around from one scenic spot to the next, with ample "opportunities" for shopping in between. The restaurants and hotels are typically on the low end as well. This is how they offer such a cheap price, as you're expected to shop at designated shops and eat at prearranged restaurants where the tour company gets a nice kickback. This is an accurate description of my gf's mom's recent trip to Hainan, and also their trip last year to Beijing.....she hated it both times....still can't understand why she signs up for these stupid group tours. Herd mentality I guess.
