Published:  09:15 Friday - May 03, 2013

Travelers cannot make the most of the tourism season, but they can only taste the bitterness when they are overcharged at tourist sites.

Travel firms say one thing and do another

A lot of travel firms announced noisy sale promotion campaigns, offering big discount rates for the tours. They explained that they had to sell tours at a loss to stimulate the demand in the context of the low demand. 

However, travelers complained say the travel firms do not take loss with the tours. In fact, they can make fat profit by providing low quality services.

Nguyen Thi Dung in Thuong Tin district in Hanoi, who has returned from the tour to Ao Vua – Duong Lam, complained that the meal service was terrible. Dung and her friends booked the tour which was advertised “dirt cheap” (VND5 million for 30 people) and felt regret about their decision.

They were offered jungle fowl meat, water and fruit desserts for the main meal. However, the chicken was the refuse imported from China. There were only two cakes of soybeans and some rau muong (a kind of popular vegetable).

“The service is unacceptable,” Dung said.

Nguyen Huynh Quan, a third year student of the Phuong Dong University, also said that the low cost tours only brought low quality services.

“We thought that we could book the tour at a reasonable fee. But we later realized that the poorest is the dearest,” Quan complained.

Not only travel firms, but hotels also tried to play tricks to overcharge guests. Two students from Hue City and one from Thanh Hoa related that they came to Hanoi to receive the awards promised for them – the second price winners at a competition. 

The students were told to stay for two days at a hotel on Xuan Thuy Street in Hanoi. However, they were asked to check out after just 1.5 days of staying there. When the students contacted the organization board, they were explained that the hotel tried to “wring money” from them.

The high season to overcharge tourists

Before going to Sam Son beach, tourists are always told to be cautious with the service providers here, who have been famous for a lot of tricks. However, the advice still cannot help tourists.

Son, a traveler from Lang Son province, read on a notice board that a traveler had to pay VND10,000 in coach to go from Doc Cuoc Temple to Trong Mai island. However, in fact, he had to pay VND55,000. 

A traveler, who has returned from Sam Son, complained that the food services were terrible. Nguyen Ngoc from Hanoi said that he and his family members ordered 4 sea crabs, 500 gr for each. However, the crafts they were served were very small, just 250 gr. Ngoc, when complaining about this to the restaurant owner, received a simple answer that seafood always gets lighter after the processing. 

However, Ngoc later heard from a cook that the restaurant might exchange fraudulently smaller crabs for the bigger ones he ordered.

The travelers to Sam Son would be advised to buy fish sauce – the specialty of the locality. Le Van Hang, a local resident in Sam Son town, said that if a driver introduces can introduce a buyer to the seller, he would get the commission of VND40,000 per kilo of crabs sold, VND30,000 per liter of fish sauce.

Vietnamnet