Phuket Chinese tourists handed 'tour price list' to deter rip-offs

[webfact]

Phuket Chinese tourists handed 'tour price list' to deter rip-offs

The Phuket News

 

The list of suggested tour prices set out by the Tourism Ministry were handed out to Chinese tourists arriving in Phuket yesterday (Nov 6). Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

 

PHUKET: -- More than 1,000 Chinese tourists on board 40 buses and vans returning to Phuket from tours to Krabi and Phang Nga were handed out lists of recommended tour prices yesterday (Nov 6) to prevent rip-off agents from charging them greatly inflated prices.

 

Of note, the advisory – written in Chinese languge – informed the Chinese tourists that they should not spend more than B3,000 per person per tour.

 

The campaign was carried out by more than 50 members of the Thai-Chinese Tourism Alliance Association Phuket office and the Thai Chinese speaking Tour Guide Club, and led by Ronnakris Cheinsangaroon and Nonphuri Phattarakunakornsakul, who each serve as the Secretary at the respective associations.

 

The list, handed out as the tour buses and vans arrived on the island and passed through the Phuket Checkpoint at Tha Chatchai, gave example prices of tours in Phuket, Krabi and Phang Nga.

 

Examples included:

One day round trip to Phi Phi - Adult B2,000; Child B1,700

Phang Nga - Adult B1,200; Child B1,000

Koh Racha - Adult B1,500; Child B1,200

 

Full story: http://www.thephuketnews.com/phuket-chinese-tourists-handed-tour-price-list-to-deter-rip-offs-59764.php

 

-- © Copyright Phuket News 2016-11-07

[kotsak]

Apparently the whities can be ripped off as usual 

 

[Thaiwrath]

I am sure the prices were uplifted to include the tour guides commission !

[zaphod reborn]

Why don't they pass out advisories for tuk tuk prices to all tourists?

[smedly]

1 hour ago, zaphod reborn said:

Why don't they pass out advisories for tuk tuk prices to all tourists?

someone might get shot

[Goldieinkathu]

They need to give them lists of fruit prices too, not a single price in sight at the local market in Kathu where they roll up in mini buses all day. These tourists are being ripped off at every opportunity .

[bokningar]

The double price system has been in Thailand as long as I have come here, and what I understand long before that.

Check what you pay compared to a Thai person when you enter a National park!!

 

And this has been the same regardless of who has been in power, so please try NOT to make this about red, yellow or green.

[Kiwisailor]

I'm sure that this list will be very similar to the recommended pricelist that tuk-tuk drivers have posted all around Phuket/

[monkey4u]

A smart way to ensure tourists are safe on diving tours is to collect the money on their return

1 or 2 missing 

Shit there goes our commission 

[louse1953]

On 11/7/2016 at 6:57 PM, Goldieinkathu said:

They need to give them lists of fruit prices too, not a single price in sight at the local market in Kathu where they roll up in mini buses all day. These tourists are being ripped off at every opportunity .

i rekon Chinese know how to haggle.

[siam2007]

On 08/11/2016 at 7:15 PM, louse1953 said:

i rekon Chinese know how to haggle.

 

 

as 98% of those package tourists don't know a single word, not even "yes" or "no", in any other language except their mother tongue, for sure they won't be able to haggle

[LivinginKata]

15 minutes ago, siam2007 said:

 

 

as 98% of those package tourists don't know a single word, not even "yes" or "no", in any other language except their mother tongue, for sure they won't be able to haggle

 

I wonder if the Thai-Chinese vendors speak any Chinese ? I would think yes.

[siam2007]

13 minutes ago, LivinginKata said:

 

I wonder if the Thai-Chinese vendors speak any Chinese ? I would think yes.

 

 

well yeah if that is the case (and admittedly it is not unlikely that the sheep r made to shop at Thainese shops) then they should be able to haggle, but probably, due to lack of experience in traveling abroad, they still won't do so or r being intimidated by their "guides" beforehand

[LivinginKata]

11 minutes ago, siam2007 said:

 

 

well yeah if that is the case (and admittedly it is not unlikely that the sheep r made to shop at Thainese shops) then they should be able to haggle, but probably, due to lack of experience in traveling abroad, they still won't do so or r being intimidated by their "guides" beforehand

 

You really think that the Chinese tourists don't know how to haggle.  It's just bred from birth into all Asian. We westerners lost that skill in our home countries a very long time ago. 

[siam2007]

21 minutes ago, LivinginKata said:

 

You really think that the Chinese tourists don't know how to haggle.  It's just bred from birth into all Asian. We westerners lost that skill in our home countries a very long time ago. 

 

 

My Condo is right next to a (Chinese, of course) Restaurant where tour Buses with Chinese mainlanders arrive every day for lunch and dinner. next to that Restaurant, several small souvenir and fruit shops popped up. I have been watching the Chinese numerous times looking at the goods or even buying there. Not a single time I have seen any "haggling" started by the Chinese (even though some of the shop owners are definitely Thainese and speak Mandarin and even Cantonese (I can identify Cantonese). They are being told the price and then they buy or don't.

As for myself, I have certainly not lost my ability to haggle or maybe I have regained it after living in Asia for 15 years. In many cases, my Thai, Indonesian and Philippine friends couldn't even believe when I told them how much I paid for goods or a service in the respective country. Though in many cases I ended up paying more voluntarily than the vendor agreed to when I found it was justified to give him a little more , as the goods or service was excellent or I found it too cheap for what I got (even by Asian standards). Did so just a few days ago at a tiny shoe repair stall in a small Soi, when the guy quoted me 60 Baht (30 each) for gluing both of the brand new (but poorly done by another shoe repair in another town) soles of my shoes. When I collected the shoes the next day and saw that the guy was handicapped and could barely get up from his small plastic stool to walk to the drawer where my shoes were stored, even though he used a stick, I gave him 100 Baht as he did a quality Job and I would have felt guilty otherwise.

Same I did in Indonesia for example, giving an old becak driver more than we first agreed, as I saw it was challenging for him to carry a heavy Caucasian body on his becak, even more so going slightly uphill.

Still, in most cases, particularly at tourist places, fierce haggling is usually justified to avoid being ripped off. every case is different though

 

.

Edited November 10, 2016 by siam2007

[NamKangMan]

I can imagine what they must think about their choice of holiday destination when they are given this information.