KCA News & Media
Press Release
Press Release
| Overseas Travel Packages(Discrepancy between internet and actual prices) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Date | 2008-06-23 | Hit | 5132 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Overseas Travel Packages; Discrepancy between internet and actual prices Travel agencies lure consumers with cheaper travel package ads on the internet or news papers, but they charged much more than their ads. The Korea Consumer Agency (President: Myung-Hee Park) analyzed overseas travel package prices of the top 20 travel agencies which represented 87.5% of the overseas travel packages in 2007. It was found that all travel agencies’ ad prices on the internet or newspapers were different from the actual travel expenses. 70% (14 agencies) of them charged extra fees without specific reasons. The extra fees varied from 7% to 88% of the ad prices. 35% of them charged over 50% of the ad prices as extra fees. 60% (12 agencies) of them forced optional tours. □Travel agencies charged extra fees without specific reasons 20 Surveyed travel agencies’ ad prices did not match actual travel expenses. Furthermore extra fees were charged without concrete reasons. 70% (14 agencies) of them charged extra fees for ‘airport taxes¹ and fuel surcharges²’. 30% (6 agencies) of them charged fuel surcharges based on increased fuel prices over January and February, while no agencies reflected decreased fuel surcharges in March 2008. ※ 1) Airport taxes (Incheon International Airport tax, tourism promotion fund, local airport tax, the fund for global poverty eradication etc.) 2) Fuel surcharges are collected by the national airlines, according to the monthly level standard upon changes in oil prices.
In particular, some of them, including ‘Hana Tour’, applied different extra fees on the same travel schedules. Actually, it was often found that lower list priced packages on the internet were more expensive. 【Table 2】 Packages including extra fees
□ Differences between list prices and actual prices for the same travel packages Even for the same travel packages, the list prices and extra fees varied from travel agencies. Also, there were big discrepancies between list prices and actual prices. Among 13 surveyed travel agencies, YB Tour and Online Tour offered the lowest list prices (KRW 369,000) for Koreans’ favorite travel packages to
□ The maximum extra fees reached 88% of the list prices Extra fees varied from 7% (Hana Tour) to 88% (Lotte Tours) of the list prices. In particular, the extra fees applied to the travel packages for Southeast Asian countries. Lotte Tours charged 88% of the list price as an extra fee for travel package to 7 of those surveyed travel agencies charged more than 50% of the list prices as extra fees, 5 agencies added less than 20% extra fees. It is advised that the consumer’s special attention is needed in selecting travel packages.
□ Still forcing optional tours 60% (12 agencies) of all surveyed travel agencies forced optional tours. The optional tours were especially enforced for cheaper travel packages to Southeast Asian countries without the customers’ consents. Yeohangsa.com charged USD 135 of the highest extra fee for ‘Quick silver cruise+Jimbaran seafood of Bali’ in Indonesia. 【Table 4】Forced optional tours by travel agencies
□ Most travel agencies failed to meet the criteria for price related notification The Korea Consumer Agency investigated 16 travel agencies’ advertisements which were featured in major news papers during March of 2008. Mode Tour only met the ‘important criteria for indication and notification for advertising’. In particular, 3 travel agencies, such as Lotte Tours, Online Tour and Tourmania21 lured consumers with an indication of “no extra charge” while they indicated “extra fees will be added” or “extra fees will be included for some travel packages” which were written in small letters on each travel package column. ※ For news paper ads, the amount of extra fees should be indicated based on the ‘important criteria for indication and notification for advertising’ (i.e.; fuel surcharges : KRW OO). Based on the survey, the Korea Consumer Agency has a plan to recommend the following measures to the relevant government agencies; ▲Include fixed fees such as Incheon International airport tax, tourism promotion fund, the fund for global poverty eradication and local airport tax in the list prices. ▲Indicate separately, Fuel surcharge and war risk insurance fee as extra fees. ▲Recommend to modify the fuel surcharge change schedule on a monthly basis to bimonthly or quarterly basis in order to resolve the disputes between reserved customers and travel agencies. Surveyed Items by Travel Agency
1) Extra fees (airport taxes, fuel surcharges) |
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