http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/20/tourists-forced-to-shop-i_n_651627.html Tourists 'Forced To Shop' In Hong Kong First Posted: 07-19-10 03:30 PM | Updated: 07-20-10 10:40 AM digg facebook Twitter stumble reddit del.ico.us What's Your Reaction? Amazing Inspiring Funny Scary Hot Crazy Important Weird Read More: Hong Kong, Hong Kong Shopping, Hong Kong Tours, Travel, Travel News 3 0views Hong Kong Get Travel Alerts * Email * Comments China's National Tourism Administration has issued a travel advisory for Hong Kong after a video of mainland tourists being insulted and "forced to shop" by a Hong Kong tour guide sparked outrage on the Internet, according to MSNBC. "An undated video clip currently circulating on the Internet shows a Hong Kong tour guide allegedly abusing a group of visitors from the Chinese mainland and forcing them to shop, triggering a backlash from the mainland public," the Xinhua news agency said. Budget Chinese tour packages often take tourists to shops which return a percentage of the sales revenue to the agency, a practice that is increasingly common on mainland China and overseas tours offered by Chinese agencies. Back in May, a 65-year old tourist died from a heart attack in Hong Kong after arguing with a tour guide after being forced to shop.
Its a suprise because the extreme level of force/preasure used is unmatched and should be uncalled for. A good friend of mine runs a tour agency in Hong Kong. According to her, it was not an isloated incident. The fact that it got attention was because it was recorded by a cellphone and somehow leaked to the press. The tour guide was seen using profanity and insulting language which was highly inappropriated under any circumstance. It caused an uproar in the Chinese BBS. Some even suggested boycotting the HKSAR toueist industry.
With the death of that old man who was well known in China, more of these cases have come to light, these tours guides/groups can be really bad, they only bring you do certain places where they already have something set up with the owners of those shops/businesses so they can get a cut from it. HK is not the only place that this happens at, like hkm91450 said, it happens in a lot of other countries as well, but HK should really do something about this issues cause it's a major city and tons of tourists goes to HK and these type of things will make HK look really bad.
These types of compensated arrangements between tour operators and merchant venues is not new. I remember a tour guide getting pissed at us when I first visited Beijing in 1990; she'd brought us to some really pricey hole in the wall place with trashy products (remember, this was China 1990) so nobody wanted to buy anything. It wasn't that we didn't want souvenirs or gifts; the stuff they offered then was pure schlock and many of the things were outright fakes (I've been buying fake jade for years, LOL...) Plus, mainland China isn't the end of these types of things either; US based Chinese tour operators routinely do the same thing. From where you're taken to eat, shop, sleep, etc., they're all in on some sort of "arrangement" to the benefit of the party that controls the group of money spending tourists. But don't take is so badly; despite the rather extreme example offered by the aggressive HK operator, these types of goings on had been affecting the tour industry across all nationalities and ethnic groups for years. It really isn't anything new per se, but the example here is rather extreme. The only thing new about this is cell phones and the internet makes for bad press, LOL...
