A HOLIDAYMAKER from Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region was “tossed away” by a tourism coach just because he did not agree to visit scenic spots that required extra entry fees while joining a two-day package tour of Shenzhen and Zhuhai over the weekend, Yangcheng Evening News reported.

    The tourist, surnamed Du, told the newspaper that he had seen a person distributing flyers promoting the package tour at the low price of 58 yuan (US$8.43) at the square of Guangzhou Railway Station on Jan. 19.

    Du said that he was attracted by the low-priced tour, which would bring him to the two cities, so he called the number printed on the flyer to register for the package tour.

    “They told me that the tour fee included three meals a day, accommodation and transportation, and I could choose to visit the places of interest myself, whether paid or free,” said Du. He even asked if he would get an invoice or a contract after paying for the tour, but was told it was “not necessary.”

    On Friday morning, Du arrived at the assembling point in Guangzhou and departed with other tourists. “The coach was full soon after I got on and all of the other tourists had come from other places,” said Du.

    Du and the others were taken to a famous mansion in Shenzhen. The tour guide collected fees from the tourists for getting to the top of the mansion, but Du thought it was not reasonable to pay, so he did not pay to go to the top floor.

    The group was taken to a few other paid scenic spots. “They collected fees for all of the places we went to as none of them were free for entry,” said Du.

    The tour guide told Du that they would not pay for his accommodation because he did not pay to visit any of the tourism spots. “They stopped at a place and asked me to get off the bus before leaving,” said Du, who was irritated by the travel company.

    When the News tried to contact the travel company with the number printed on the flyer, no one picked up the call. Later a person who identified himself as Gao called back with a mobile phone number and said he was from the travel company.

    Gao said that they were aware of the complaint made by Du and blamed the customer service staff who had introduced the tour to Du, saying she had incorrectly explained the schedule to the tourist.

    “The customer service staff was a temporary-hire and did not explain our two-day tour clearly,” said Gao, who added that their extremely low-priced tour fee could not possibly include accommodation.

    The tourism bureau in Guangzhou said in response that they will investigate whether the travel company had deliberately scammed the tourists and if they possessed a license. (Zhang Qian)