200 Local Travel Reps Protest Chinese Price Undercut at Night Safari

by CityNews

 

 

CityNews – Over 200 people representing travel agencies, the Chiang Mai Professional Tourist Guide Alliance, and songtaew and tuk tuk drivers gathered to protest at the Chiang Mai Night Safari on 30th September, claiming that Chinese websites were offering drastic price reductions to entrance tickets.

 

The group, led by the president of Inter Guide Club, protested against the ticket price cut and appealed to authorities to set a solid price applicable to all.

 

According to the protesters, many Chinese websites including Taobao.com have offered discounted prices for the entrance ticket to the Chiang Mai Night Safari. Tickets can be found as cheap at 30 yuan (around 150 baht) which contrasts with the door prices which are 400 baht for Thais and 800 baht for foreigners.

 

The protesters revealed that the huge price gap had caused great confusions amongst tourists, some of whom have accused tourist guides and transportation entrepreneurs of overcharging. These drivers and tour guides tend to receive generous kickbacks from destinations such as the Night Safari when they take tourists there, and this price reduction has undermined this system. They say that many tourists, when they arrive and see the door prices, merely go online and purchase their much cheaper tickets this way.

 

Full Story: http://www.chiangmaicitylife.com/news/200-local-travel-reps-protest-chinese-price-undercut-at-night-safari/

 

-- © Copyright Chiang City News 2017-10-2

17 minutes ago, snoop1130 said:

The group, led by the president of Inter Guide Club, protested against the ticket price cut and appealed to authorities to set a solid price applicable to all.

Solid price to all  - except to Western tourists i am guessing.

150 baht sounds about right for everybody

Night Safari is encroaching on National Park land from what I hear.

These sites can obviously make a profit at 150 baht so the Thais are obviously charging 3-6 times the price and then complaining that they need to pay some of that extortionate rip off in kick backs. Charge a price which makes a reasonable profit and get lots more business, obviously not the Thai way.

15 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Tickets can be found as cheap at 30 yuan (around 150 baht) which contrasts with the door prices which are 400 baht for Thais and 800 baht for foreigners.

love it, the double-pricing is biting them

Hard to feel any sympathy for the locals who seem to have had a nice scam going for a long time. 

Zero sympathy, someone is making money selling tickets and reducing the incidence of excessive dual pricing.

Whats to stop these local agencies buying the tickets cheap enough to sell at 150 ฿?

Or can they?

Taobao.com and the other sites offer prices for just about every tourist attraction in and around Chiangmai and the rest of Thailand, anyone can buy the tickets. The protest is simply over cutting out the middleman,not illegal.

 

What is also happening is that many of  the thousands of Chinese that are coming here are using their rented property as airbnb style accommodation, and then providing the tour services with the tickets bought from the likes of Taobao,this is illegal. This is the area they should be concentrating their protest on.

Very apt at night safari, a farang shooting gallery...special discount !

Bt800 to view sick and dying animals is a bit stiff. 

The Chinese are there to whet their appetite for the next endangered species snack.

Hey guys don't moan too much all you have left to visit is the Chinese

Songteaw and tuk tuk drivers who have no office , no TAT licence , no costs for staff and pay zero tax should not even be getting agent prices.

So what are the doing there complaining?