Phuket guides 'too greedy' say tour operators

[webfact]

Phuket guides 'too greedy' say tour operators
The Phuket News


Santi Pawai says he will create a 'road map' for the tourism business in Phuket.

PHUKET: -- A battle is heating up between tour guides and tour operators after lawyers from the Ministry of Tourism & Sport held a conference at The Metropole hotel on Wednesday (August 27) to clarify laws relating to the tourism industry.

Some 300 people attended the meeting.

The fight developed at the meeting over the prices guides charge. Officials explained current law requires that guides be paid a minimum of B1,000 a day for their services.

However, a tour operator who claimed to have been in the tourism business for 40 years, said that things did not work like that. Guides hire themselves out for short trips, and she has to hire guides sometimes as much as five times a day, each time for as much as B1,000.

The officials asked her for her name, but she told them, “You don’t need to know that.”

She was cheered by one piece of information. “We discovered today that the law defines different kinds of guide – city guides and sea guides, for example. So if guides change roles without qualification I think they should be arrested,” she said.

“Then they will know who they must wary of,” she said, to applause from other tour operators.

However, guides who attended the meeting did not agreed at all. One man, who also declined to give his name, said, “The cost of living is very high, and we can’t afford [to live on B1,000 a day]. Why do you want officials to force us to reduce our income?”

The tour operator countered, “I did not mean to ask you to reduce your minimum income, but we do want you to reduce your cost per trip. It’s not fair for us. If you didn’t understand or did not hear me well, I will clean out your ears for you.”

After the meeting the tour operator spoke with The Phuket News on condition of anonymity.

“Guides have no morality,” she said. “They raise their prices but do not have any standards of service.

“This affects the price of tours, because they charge us too much. Sometimes in the high season, they demand B700 or more per round trip to one destination,” she explained.

“Sometime, guides are selfish. They dump passengers at a souvenir shop as soon as they get a call offering them a more lucrative job, or when they are with the tour at a place where they cannot make commission,” she said.

“Despite their rates being very expensive, the quality of service is very low. We always get complaint from tourists about the quality of guide service, and the tourists do not kno that the guides are not our staff.

“According to the officials today, the law says that guides must be paid at least B1,000 a day. This is a loophole because they allow us to hire them only by the round, by the day. So if I hire them five times a day, do I have to pay B5,000?” she asked.

“Moreover, the cost of a ticket for a tour is around B1,000-2,000 per person. We make a profit of only B300 per tourist. The people who make the biggest money are the guides.

“We find the customers, but sometimes guides hired to pick up our passengers hand out their name cards and then divert them to another tour company. They steal our customers. Is this our fault?”

It is easy to qualify to be a guide but high-quality guides are very hard to find, she said.

“You just have pass a test after seven days of training and you must be able to swim. That’s it. If you ask me about the quality of new generation guides, I would have to say it’s low.

“It is very hard for the old guides in this situation. The newly qualified guides charge the same prices as the experienced ones, and we cannot refuse to pay those prices, especially in the high season when there is a shortage of tour guides.”

In the meeting the battle was brought to an end by the Phuket Director of Tourism and Sport, Santi Pawai.

“Okay, I will summarise your points,” he said, “and then I will write a road map to send to National Council for Peace and Order for consideration.”

“If anyone has more suggestions they should contact me via Line. The same if anyone would like to tip us off about illegal tour companies or illegal tour guides. Then I will have them arrested,” he added.

Source: http://www.thephuketnews.com/phuket-guides-%E2%80%98too-greedy%E2%80%99-say-tour-operators-48464.php


-- Phuket News 2014-08-29

[TVGerry]

Meow!

So much hate!

[JoePai]

“The cost of living is very high, and we can’t afford [to live on B1,000 a day].

[hotsoup]

Who on earth needs a 'guide' to Phuket? Sure you might need to haggle with some transports..but it is hardly like venturing into Tibet.

[stevenl]

Who on earth needs a 'guide' to Phuket? Sure you might need to haggle with some transports..but it is hardly like venturing into Tibet.

If you book a tour, to e.g. Phang Nga Bay, Phi Phi, and island tour, etc., it is a requirement that a guide is present.

[waynethor]

I would suggest that if they insist on being paid 1000 baht for a short trip that will only take part of the day, keep them standing around twiddling their fingers for the rest of the day. You paid their per day rate, so you're entitled to have them at your service for the entire day. If they take the 1000 baht and refuse to stay, report them to the authorities.

[steelepulse]

I think they're both too greedy, for what you actually get in these ( not so ) high quality tours.

[PaulHamon]

I would suggest that if they insist on being paid 1000 baht for a short trip that will only take part of the day, keep them standing around twiddling their fingers for the rest of the day. You paid their per day rate, so you're entitled to have them at your service for the entire day. If they take the 1000 baht and refuse to stay, report them to the authorities.

If they paid them 30,000 Baht a month of 20 days work I'm sure most would take it... week in week out, but the tour operators don't want that because 1/2 the year they'd be paying but little tours. So the guides need to maximize their revenue for the 6 months of the year, while they can.

For every day they WORK there is a day at the other end of the year there they don't have any income.

If there a shortage of guides (which there must be) this is not the guides fault, this would be lack of proper planning by government bodies and/or relevant associations.

Edited August 29, 2014 by PaulHamon

[manarak]

The law needs to be changed to create a corporate tour guide status besides the freelancer.

The corporate tour guide would lose his license when fired.

Minimum pay 1000 baht / day.

Problem solved.

[PaulHamon]

The law needs to be changed to create a corporate tour guide status besides the freelancer.

The corporate tour guide would lose his license when fired.

Minimum pay 1000 baht / day.

Problem solved.

how about just meet supply with demand.

[Katipo]

1,000 per day + all meals while they are working. Could be worse. Much worse.

Agreed that guides are generally crap too. I remember one I had in Ayudhya who knew less than I did after a 30 minute read of a guide book.

[PaulHamon]

1,000 per day + all meals while they are working. Could be worse. Much worse.

Agreed that guides are generally crap too. I remember one I had in Ayudhya who knew less than I did after a 30 minute read of a guide book.

pay peanuts get monkeys.

[hkt83100]

“The cost of living is very high, and we can’t afford [to live on B1,000 a day].

Especially if you consider the commission they get from taylors, goldshops, jewellery stores, elephant camps - or from whereever . Greedy pack!

[utkb]

The guides here could learn some lessons from guides I encountered in Russia at the Kremlin.

Waiting in a long line to tour the Kremlin, I was approached by a an average dressed girl with badge around her neck and offered a tour guide of the Kremlin for about $100 (I was with a friend on business).

We were skeptical but said why not. Best $100 guide ever. They cut us in front of every line at each building and we went through 3x more sites in the Kremlin than if we had gone alone. They also new their facts as she took us around.

While I have very few (none actually) good things to say about Russia, the guide experience was the exception.

My point here is that if they want 1000 Baht to be a guide, be sure to offer something that going alone wouldn't get you.

[SGD]

I would suggest that if they insist on being paid 1000 baht for a short trip that will only take part of the day, keep them standing around twiddling their fingers for the rest of the day. You paid their per day rate, so you're entitled to have them at your service for the entire day. If they take the 1000 baht and refuse to stay, report them to the authorities.

If they paid them 30,000 Baht a month of 20 days work I'm sure most would take it... week in week out, but the tour operators don't want that because 1/2 the year they'd be paying but little tours. So the guides need to maximize their revenue for the 6 months of the year, while they can.

For every day they WORK there is a day at the other end of the year there they don't have any income.

If there a shortage of guides (which there must be) this is not the guides fault, this would be lack of proper planning by government bodies and/or relevant associations.

So tourists have to be gouged and ripped off so that the defrauding lazy Thai guides can have 6 months off on the Lao Khao / Sang Som ?

[mok199]

....the thai way or the hiway......

[stevenl]

“The cost of living is very high, and we can’t afford [to live on B1,000 a day].

Especially if you consider the commission they get from taylors, goldshops, jewellery stores, elephant camps - or from whereever . Greedy pack!

In general the guides take people on tours to Phi Phi, Phang Nga, etc., so no commissions there. Only on island tours and the more specialist tours, like Russians to latex factories, there could be commissions involved. But those tours are from start to beginning controlled by others than the guide, so also there no commissions.

[beowolf2012]

Now i have stay in Thailand for 14 years and i never used a tour guide.

If i don't know the way even i ask or look in the map.................

[pagallim]

I think important to keep in mind that ALL tour guides must be native Thai. Hence the shortage of Russian/Chinese speaking Thais, and with the ever increasing numbers of Russian/Chinese package (with normally prepaid inclusive tours) tourists. The market has opened up a box of riches for these guides for sure.

[SGD]

Now i have stay in Thailand for 14 years and i never used a tour guide.

If i don't know the way even i ask or look in the map.................

Only once took a trip in Bangkok, when staying at the Shangri-La.

As a top hotel, you were given the impression that this was not a crap run to the jewellery store but that's the way it turned out and we just refused to play along (as only 2 on this tour).

On the other hand, I had the Le Meridian on Samui hook us up with a local fisherman to go fishing which worked out really well. That was bespoke though, not a printed brochure.

[simon43]

For every day they WORK there is a day at the other end of the year there they don't have any income

Why? Now it's the 'green season' but my hotel is booking tour guides every day for our Chinese guests - the low season in Phuket still has many Chinese and Russian tourists.

[Equalizer]

I would be lost without a guide. I use my guide wherever i go. I am blind.

[Grindting]

"pay peanuts get monkeys."

Well they're not getting paid peanuts are they, they're getting paid in golden eggs by thai standards.. Yet still behaving like monkeys, that's the point..

[Pii Kate]

I cannot count the many times various drivers have offered to be my guide. Almost none of them speak English and believe a guide and driver are the same thing.

I learned the very hard way to never hire a guide for long trips. I thought I would drive to Laos from Chiang Mai on a visa run, enjoy the country, etc. I asked for a contract but he said his English speaking wife (he also spoke English) could explain things. Idiot that I am at times, I went along with this. After one day out of CM, the guy starts asking for more money. I kept reminding him of our verbal contract. I was in the car with these two for four days and his demands for more money became badgering. He even drove me to an ATM at one point. I stuck to the contract and when I got home I was about to scream when he said, "call me anytime if you want to see the temples".

Another woman, employee of a tour company, offered to be my private guide to Doi Suthep for 500 baht. You can take a songthaw for 70 baht round trip. Since she obviously could not use a company car for her sideline work, she wanted me to rent a car for her to drive me up the mountain.

Fool me once.......

[Grindting]

^absolutely shameless aren't they

[mezman]

“The cost of living is very high, and we can’t afford [to live on B1,000 a day].

I agree with you entirely , what a joke cant survive on 1000b per day , what about the majority of workers who survive on the minimum wage of 300b a day .

[belg]

this is funny, right ?

no honour amogst thieves !!!!!!!!!!!!

how can a guide hire other people that are not guides ?

yeah, the farang that speaks the language of the tourist is not allowed to work legally ...

pirate island, imany people will never come to you bunch of thieves

[herb59]

“The cost of living is very high, and we can’t afford [to live on B1,000 a day].

sure its true. beer,cigarettes,gambling,ladybar that costs more than 1000,- per day!

[jacko45k]

Nobody will give their name and will only speak under condition of anonymity.

That underlines the issue for me.

Now are we talking of Thai tour guides here?

[mike324]

The guides here could learn some lessons from guides I encountered in Russia at the Kremlin.

Waiting in a long line to tour the Kremlin, I was approached by a an average dressed girl with badge around her neck and offered a tour guide of the Kremlin for about $100 (I was with a friend on business).

We were skeptical but said why not. Best $100 guide ever. They cut us in front of every line at each building and we went through 3x more sites in the Kremlin than if we had gone alone. They also new their facts as she took us around.

While I have very few (none actually) good things to say about Russia, the guide experience was the exception.

My point here is that if they want 1000 Baht to be a guide, be sure to offer something that going alone wouldn't get you.

that seems to be the case for a lot of tours that I went on in Italy as well, where guides can cut infront of lines and get you tickets that you wouldn't be able to obtain days in advance for popular destinations, but at the same time a lot of those guides in Italy are also run by mafias.