Too poor to shop? You pay double for HK trip
A five-day tour from Shenzhen to Hong Kong for 780 yuan (HK$894) may sound like a bargain, but youngsters and people near retirement age aren't welcome unless they pay an extra charge that can virtually double the price.
In the eyes of many smaller travel agencies on the mainland, visitors aged 21 and under have 'low economic power' and won't buy much on shopping tours - so should pay extra.
The premium - ranging from 200 yuan to 400 yuan for those aged 55 to 60 and from HK$1,000 to HK$2,000 for the youngsters - is meant to deter them from joining such tours.
The State Council has banned mainland travel agencies charging extra based on customers' age and occupation since last year, and Hong Kong's Travel Industry Council says local travel agencies can lose their licences for doing so. But such practices continue.
A Shenzhen website offering tour packages to Hong Kong and Macau for 800 yuan says customers over 55 must pay 250 yuan extra while anyone 21 or under should pay an additional 1,000 yuan.
'These people do not have much spending power,' a salesman said. 'This is a rule laid down by our Hong Kong partners.'
But the travel council's executive director, Joseph Tung Yao-chung, said whoever was levying the extra charges was making up their own rules.
A salesman from another Shenzhen travel website said it had stopped selling cheap tours since a video clip appeared on the internet and mainland television stations showing a Hong Kong tour guide berating her mainland tour group for not spending enough at shops.
The mainland tourism administration issued a guideline three years ago, saying the cost of a four-day tour to Hong Kong should not be lower than 1,500 yuan per head.
