Is Gulangyu Island in Xiamen "slaughtering customers" and turning it into a "gray industrial chain"? Official notification: Many units involved have suspended operations for rectification! Investigation|Taxi|Xiamen|Dock|Enhancement|Unit|Involved|Gulangyu
On June 8, CCTV news reported that there were related problems in the order of the Gulangyu tourism market. Xiamen City attached great importance to it, sincerely accepted media supervision, carefully checked and investigated, took immediate action, and resolutely rectified and rectified the problem.
At noon that day, Xiamen City established a special joint working group to rectify the order of the Gulangyu tourism market, quickly launched an investigation, and dealt with relevant illegal activities strictly in accordance with the law: the five units involved in Gulangyu were ordered to suspend operations for rectification; the sales offices of the two travel agencies involved were ordered to suspend operations for rectification. ; A tour guide involved in the incident has his tour guide license temporarily deducted; relevant illegal and illegal driver service certificates are cancelled, and he draws inferences from one instance to carry out a dragnet investigation of industries exposed by the media.
1. Strengthen the joint law enforcement mechanism of the Municipal Tourism Industry Leading Group Office, further enrich personnel, strengthen regular inspections of key areas, scenic spots, shopping stores, etc., and strengthen joint investigation, joint management, and joint governance.
2. The transportation and traffic police departments will take the lead in comprehensively investigating taxi operating behaviors, and resolutely investigate and deal with illegal activities such as soliciting customers to induce consumption, collecting kickbacks, etc. Once verified, the job service certificate will be cancelled; transportation hubs such as ferry terminals and cruise center Xiagu Pier will be cancelled. , as well as the Botanical Garden and other major scenic spots, taxis are available for stop-and-go.
3. The market supervision department shall severely crack down on various illegal activities such as counterfeiting and substandard products in accordance with the law.
4. In Gulangyu Scenic Area, tour guides are strictly prohibited from arranging tourists to go to specific shopping and consumption places to illegally make profits.
5. Except for the two formal sales channels, the ticket office of the ferry company's terminal and the "Yu Jian Xiamen" ticketing platform, it is strictly prohibited for any unit or individual to sell Gulangyu ferry tickets in any form. Once verified, they will be severely punished in accordance with the law.
Xiamen's Gulangyu Island is full of chaos: Why are the "gray industrial chains" constantly being cut off?
Gulangyu Island, as a national 5A tourist attraction and a world cultural heritage site, is a must-visit tourist attraction for many tourists when visiting Xiamen. However, in recent times, tourists from other places have been reporting that there are many tourist attractions, high costs and poor experience. what on earth is it? Reporters from the main station came to the boarding pier and scenic spots to conduct undercover investigations as tourists.
The reporter saw a long row of taxis parked on the roadside of the Xiamen Ferry Terminal. Once foreign tourists appeared, the drivers would quickly greet them and talk to them.
Is what the taxi driver said true? In fact, tourists can buy Gulangyu ferry tickets at the pier or through official online channels. The lowest price is only 35 yuan, and there is no such thing as "limited to three hours" or "only individual tourists center sells tickets".
So why do taxi drivers trick tourists into buying high-priced packages at individual travel centers run by travel agencies?
After tourists are tricked by taxi drivers into the FIT center, even if they suspect that they are being tricked, they often have to accept it and buy a high-priced package ticket even though they are particularly angry because of unequal information or precious time.
The 168 yuan package sold by the individual travel centers of these travel agencies includes a 35 yuan round-trip boat ticket to Gulangyu Island and an 88 yuan ticket to private attractions on the island.
A local travel agency employee told the reporter privately that the face value of the package ticket is very different from the actual price, and there is a profit of nearly 100 yuan in 168 yuan. Of course, this is the beginning of the routine, and the tickets are for attracting traffic.
In order to reveal more inside stories, the reporter also purchased a package ticket for Gulangyu Island worth 168 yuan. After arriving on the island, the tour guide basically did not tell the historical features of Gulangyu Island, but continued to take tourists into stores for consumption.
In addition to selling pearls at the private attractions included in the package, the tour guide also took tourists into the teahouse opposite the attractions. Claiming that tea breaks are included in the ticket is actually promoting tea. After doing this, most of the tourists in the group said, "What a huge loss. It's 100% not worth the ticket price. They were ripped off."
Is the tour guide promoting it so aggressively to get more kickbacks? The reporter returned to these stores and talked to the store owners on the pretext that he was also a tour guide and wanted to seek business cooperation, and asked if there was any rebate. Stores offer a 50% rebate.
After many days of unannounced visits, the reporter discovered that it is not uncommon for merchants to provide high kickbacks to tour guides on Gulangyu Island. At the same time, these merchants often engage in irregularities such as false advertising and passing off quality products during their operations, resulting in the failure to effectively guarantee the quality of the products they sell.
In a pearl shop in the "Centennial Beauty Garden" scenic spot, the reporter spent thousands of yuan to buy some "seawater pearls" repeatedly recommended by the clerk. They immediately got them to the Xiamen Geological Palace Gold and Jewelry Testing Center, a professional organization, for appraisal. The appraisal result was that they were freshwater pearls. beads.
The price difference between freshwater pearls and seawater pearls is several times higher. In order to make money, store owners try to pass off substandard products and sell them falsely. What’s even more shocking is that the reason why some seafood restaurants can give tour guides a rebate of up to 50% is because they sell dead seafood as live seafood.
An operator in Gulangyu Island told reporters that similar phenomena of robbing customers have formed an obvious industrial chain, which not only affects the quality of tourism, but also has a serious impact on the reputation of Gulangyu Island. "This is a vicious circle."
After conducting unannounced visits during this period, the reporter found that from being dragged by taxi drivers to individual travel centers operated by travel agencies to buy high-priced packages, to tour guides and merchants joining forces to induce consumption, the chain of links has formed a complete "grey line" industrial chain”.
In response to the above-mentioned chaos, the reporter, as a tourist, repeatedly reported it to Xiamen's transportation, market supervision, Gulangyu Management Committee, cultural tourism and other departments, but failed to solve it systematically.
The staff of the Xiamen Lujiang Market Supervision Office and the taxi company expressed that they could coordinate refunds within the scope of their authority if they were dissatisfied or induced to consume.
The regulatory authorities did not conduct a thorough and effective investigation, but instead used fines and escrow to process refunds. The reporter pointed out that taxi drivers play an important part in this "gray industrial chain" and it is common to work at docks and other places. They hope that the regulatory authorities will conduct a thorough investigation and provide a reply. As of press time, the reporter still had not received a reply from the Xiamen Municipal Transportation Bureau.
In addition to the refund processing methods, staff in each department have made it clear that they are limited to investigating and handling within the scope of their respective responsibilities. As of now, there is no unified unit responsible for overall planning and coordination to specifically respond to such incidents.
Staff from Xiamen Lujiang Market Supervision and Management Office: We can’t control how tickets to scenic spots are priced, nor can we control a taxi driver’s behavior.
A staff member of the Xiamen Gulangyu-Wanshishan Scenic Area Management Committee: Because I am just a management committee member and I have to disperse it to various departments to investigate.
Staff from Xiamen Gulangyu Market Supervision and Administration Office: If you have clues about tour guide rebates, report them to the market supervision department. As long as it is related to scenic spots, our cultural and tourism department is still responsible.
Xiamen Cultural Tourism Service Hotline Staff: You can call the mayor’s hotline 12345 and inform the operator of the situation you encountered and your demands.
Can reporting problems to the 12345 government service hotline really solve the problem?
Staff of Xiamen Lujiang Market Supervision and Administration Office: In fact, I personally wrote to 12345 very early on about the industrial chain problems you mentioned, but it was of no use. 12345 responded to you and said that it would turn the situation around. Notification to the relevant departments, nothing more, no feedback given to you.
Dai Bin, president of the China Tourism Academy, believes that relevant departments in Xiamen should effectively solve illegal business problems and release more goodwill to tourists.
After searching online, there are many posts about tourists complaining about being cheated on Gulangyu Island;
Upon closer inspection, news of law enforcement agencies punishing unscrupulous drivers, tour guides, and merchants are frequently reported;
When I looked at the pier, I saw that the phenomenon of taxi drivers pretending to be enthusiastic but actually cheating was still the same.
The tourism chaos in Gulangyu Island continues to harvest waves of tourists, eroding everyone’s beautiful imagination of Xiamen. The hidden, intertwined and deep-rooted "grey industrial chain" has become Gulangyu's "psoriasis", which not only affects the quality of tourism, but also seriously damages Gulangyu's reputation.
Currently, Xiamen is implementing the "Tourism Quality Year" action. We hope that the local government can face the crux of the problem, strengthen joint governance, and create an honest and standardized tourism market environment so that tourists can gain full of beautiful memories every time they travel in Xiamen.
