Ultra-low-priced Hong Kong tour packages reliant on commissions and pushing mainland Chinese visitors to make additional purchases remain prevalent despite tighter government regulations, the South China Morning Post has found.
The business model has come under renewed scrutiny after the Travel Industry Authority revoked the licences of a travel agency and its tour guide over four cases of suspected coerced shopping between January and March.
The practice has also prompted concerns about the treatment of mainland tourists during their Labour Day “golden week” holiday, which runs from May 1 to 5.
While officials and industry representatives have described such cases as isolated, an SCMP reporter who joined a one-day local tour found that packages were priced as little as roughly 48 yuan (US$7) per person, but structured to generate additional revenue through optional activities and shopping stops.
The tour, booked via mainland platform Fliggy, included transport, a group lunch and visits to attractions such as Wong Tai Sin Temple, the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront and the West Kowloon Cultural District.
The online travel marketplace is a subsidiary of Chinese tech giant Alibaba, which also owns the SCMP.
On the day of the tour, a guide told the SCMP reporter that some people had signed up via Xianyu, which is mainly a marketplace platform for second-hand goods, for as little as 1 yuan.
The SCMP later also found the 1 yuan offer on the platform.
Alibaba is also the owner of Xianyu, which is known internationally as Goofish.
The tours are widely marketed on mainland platforms, including travel booking apps, second-hand marketplaces and social media channels such as RedNote and Douyin – the Chinese version of TikTok – where agents promote heavily discounted itineraries and recruit participants via direct messaging.
The guide also told participants that the tour fee alone was insufficient to cover costs, saying the arrangement was designed to “bring people in” and encourage further spending.
“The tour fee is not enough,” she told a busload of visitors in Mandarin. “It’s about attracting visitors to come and spend more, to help drive Hong Kong’s economy.”
She repeatedly promoted add-on activities such as a 45-minute harbour cruise and an open-top bus ride, priced at 150 yuan and 180 yuan, respectively.
“A hundred or so [Hong Kong] dollars really isn’t that much ... you should let others earn a little bit from you,” the guide said.
She added that anyone who did not join the activities would have to wait on the roadside until the bus returned.
An online check by the SCMP showed that the price of scenic bus trips varied massively.
For more budget-friendly options, bus operator KMB offers a single ride for HK$40 (US$5.10), while a “premium” tourist day pass for unlimited rides is available for HK$98.
A new route traversing Stonecutters and Tsing Ma bridges is also available for HK$58.40 per trip.
Similar prices can also be found for Citybus, which offers a day pass for HK$98 and a night pass for HK$114. One-off trips along heritage routes cost HK$47.60.
But prices for tickets with Big Bus Tours, which offers high-end, hop-on, hop-off experiences across multiple routes and multilingual commentary, start at about US$39, or HK$305, and go all the way to US$99 for a “48-Hour explore ticket”.
Meanwhile, the guide on the budget trip made repeated attempts to sell activities to participants.
“Doing business always involves profit and loss,” she said. “If you don’t join the optional activities, the company will lose more money.”
Industry sources said such upselling was a key revenue stream, alongside commissions from designated retail stops.
Tour participants were also taken to a Tsim Sha Tsui outlet that sold a mix of health supplements, jewellery and souvenirs, with guides delivering lengthy product pitches and encouraging purchases.
While overt coercion was limited, some guides were heard reprimanding tourists who did not buy anything.
The SCMP reporter ended up paying HK$237, five times the initial charge, which included insurance and an extra bus ride.
The authority has said travel agents must take “all reasonable steps” to prevent coercion and that both agencies and guides would be held accountable for breaches.
Tourism minister Rosanna Law Shuk-pui also previously pledged that efforts to curb such practices would be stepped up over the break, with patrols to target illicit practices, unlicensed guides and forced shopping.
Authorities expect about 980,000 mainland visitors to come to Hong Kong for the holiday, an increase of about 7 per cent year on year. Hotel occupancy was also projected to exceed 90 per cent.
The Travel Industry Council, meanwhile, estimated that about 900 tour groups involving 30,000 travellers will visit the city during the period.
A review of authority figures found that complaints and assistance requests handled by the regulator roughly doubled after the city reopened following the Covid-19 pandemic.
While the data did not include a breakdown of many cases involved tour guides, it showed the overall number had gone from 796 in 2022-23 to about 1,600 for the following two years.
Some industry figures have linked the persistence of such practices to below-cost pricing, with tours advertised for as little as 9.9 yuan on mainland platforms.
A consultant with the Federation of Hong Kong Trade Unions in Tourism previously warned that such pricing made it “impossible to balance the books” without relying on shopping commissions.
The SCMP reporter asked one of the guides on the budget tour whether their business model was sustainable, given the low costs.
The guide claimed that government support helped to sustain such tours. The SCMP found no evidence of direct subsidies for such packages.
Responding to inquiries, the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau said there were no such related subsidies in effect.
Hong Kong rolled out a list of targeted relief measures for the tourism sector during the pandemic under multiple rounds of its Anti-epidemic Fund, including at least HK$50,000 in one-off cash grants for travel agencies and HK$7,500 for staff and tour guides, including freelancers.
Officials said these were temporary relief and stimulus measures that had since expired.
With the return of tourists after the pandemic, authorities have moved to tighten laws regulating the travel industry.
The Travel Industry Ordinance, which came fully into force in 2022, brought travel agents, tour guides and travel escorts under a unified licensing regime.
It also allows the authority to impose conditions, conduct inspections and take disciplinary action, including license suspension or revocation, against regulatory breaches such as coerced shopping.
Agents are also required to take “all reasonable steps” to ensure guides comply with rules, with serious violations resulting in criminal penalties such as fines and prison time.
The SCMP has contacted Alibaba for comment on the listings discovered on Fliggy and Goofish. -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
