Zero Charge Tour In Hong Kong

Introduction

In the recent years, the tourism industry of Hong Kong has been suffering from a severe negative impact due to a scandal that occurred within the industry. The Zero Charge Tour literally indicates tour without payment of fee by the tourist, whereas, it is not precise to interpret the Zero Charge Tour in this way. The Zero Charge Tour means the kind of tour that requires the tourist to pay incredibly low fee. Distinguished from the traditional group tour, it appears to be more economic and worthwhile, thus it becomes attractive to those tourists who tend to have a relatively low budget. Zero Charge Tour firstly appeared in the tourism industry of Thailand where it was employed to attract the tourists from Taiwan. Subsequently there had been a rapid expansion from Thailand to other countries within the region. In some situation the Zero Charge Tour has been a systematic common practice within the industry. This essay is to take a closer look at this ethical issue and thus gain a better understanding of it. In the succeeding section, there will be causes and effects study to unveil how it happens. Then a further description of this ethical issue from the perspectives of various stakeholders will be included and afterwards attentions will be concentrated on the steps that government has taken to tackle this issue. Lastly, conclusion will be drawn and possible suggestions will be presented at the end of this essay.

Causes and effects study

Hong Kong has long been remarked as a shoppers’ paradise. It has a well developed tourism industry which attracts tens of thousands of people every year. Since 1997’s handing over, Hong Kong’s tourism has become increasing dependent to the vast market of mainland China. It has become more and more apparent since 2003 when Hong Kong’s economy was in severe depression and CEPA (Closer Economic Partnership Agreement) came into being. In order to relieve the Hong Kong economy and gain mutual benefit, CEPA loosed the constraints of mainland tourist’s visiting Hong Kong. Though traveling to Hong Kong become more possible for middle class people who share a big portion of the total population of Mainland China, the normal price for a group tour to Hong Kong is still above budget of those people. Zero Charge Tour was then introduced to lure those people. Apparently it turns out to have caused a series of problems to the tourism industry of Hong Kong. The exposure of Zero Charge Tour by CCTV brought great damage to the image of Hong Kong and the confidence of tourist towards Hong Kong. With the emerging external competitions from cities like Singapore and Bangkok, this issue might reduce the market share of Hong Kong’s tourism industry in the market of mainland China. Apart from the industry, other stakeholders involved suffered as well. In the succeeding section, analysis will be conducted from the perspectives of some of the stakeholders.

Description of ethical issue

Some of the stakeholders of this issue are travel operators. These complain that their counterparts in mainland China are not mature and refuse to pay any money to them. In order to go on their business, there is no second choice but follow the “common practice”. The travel operator can seldom receive money from the travel agencies in mainland China. Sometimes they even need to pay money to travel agencies of Mainland China when managing the so-called Zero Charge Tour. In order to get ample profit from those tourists, the travel operator would make a secret agreement with some special shops whose goods are in much higher prices and even in some occasion are counterfeits. The Travel operator and the tour guide are promised to receive money from those shops. This is the way how travel operators generate revenue and how tour guides get commission. In this case, it seems that the travel operator is not to be blame. If they don’t operate the Zero Charge Tour, they will lose market share and might even not be able to survive in the industry. Some experts in the industry have given the government suggestion that steps be taken to stop their business if they continue to operate the Zero Charge Tour. However, their business did not violate the law of Hong Kong. Since Hong Kong is a free market, the government is not capable to stop one’s business.

The second stakeholder involved is the tour guides who seem to be blame. It is reported that those “black tour guide” will always do something to mislead, lure or force the tourists to buy ample goods in the designated shops in stead of taking them to tourist attractions for sightseeing. If the tourists refuse to buy those goods or their consumption does not reach the quota, they will be forbidden to leave the shop or even have a possibility of being abandoned. In order to reduce cost to minimum, accommodation and meal are certainly low quality. However, those tour guides protest that they are only the scapegoat in this case. In fact they can only get little or even no commission from their travel operator. “Tour guides have to strive for their own survival, they don't have fixed basic salary, their living is based on commission and minimum service fee” (Lam 2005). In the most cases quota of how much the tourists should consume in those designated shops is assigned by the travel operator to those tour guide.

The third stakeholder is of course those tourists who appear to be the victim of Zero Charge Tour. The majority of their time in Hong Kong will be arranged for shopping which is always a trap set up by the travel operator and tour guide. However, considering that they are well aware of the fact that the price of their tour is much lower than the average, they should take some responsibility toward this issue as well. Tourists should be educated that what they pay is always relevant to what service they would enjoy.

Measure

After analyzing three stakeholders above, study should be focused on the industry and government. This scandal has already brought a massive loss to the industry. Fortunately, efforts have been made to settle this issue. “The Consumer Council (CC), the Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong (TIC) and the Hong Kong Tourism Board have all put in place various measures respectively. The Consumer Council has collaborated with its counterparts China Consumers’ Association in the