Locals have a headache because of the cheap tour: 130,000 VND/person including lunch

Budget tours to Hong Kong (China) for mainland Chinese tourists during the "golden week" holiday are becoming a popular choice. However, this is causing headaches for local authorities because cheap tours affect the economy .

A search on China’s leading travel booking platform Fliggy showed that a one-day tour to Hong Kong for a group of 60 people was deeply discounted on May 6 to just 35.9 yuan to 39.9 yuan (VND130,000 - VND145,000).

This price includes lunch. This is considered a "free" tour price because the cost of living in Hong Kong is very expensive.

One-day tour to Hong Kong costs 130,000 VND/person including 8-course lunch (Photo: News).

This low-cost tour requires participants to apply for their own visas and is mainly aimed at groups from localities such as Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Guangzhou. The tour price includes visitors being taken to visit 8 famous destinations.

Specifically, visitors need to gather at designated locations at 8am. They will then be taken to Wong Tai Sin Temple, the West Kowloon Cultural District Art Park and the area outside the Hong Kong Palace Museum in the morning.

After the morning tour, visitors will have lunch at a restaurant selected by the tour guide.

The afternoon tour will continue to visit Golden Bauhinia Square, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center, and The Peak. Next, the group will take a ferry from Wan Chai to Tsim Sha Tsui . This is where visitors can visit the Avenue of Stars and enjoy the view of Victoria Harbor.

SCMP newspaper commented that the extremely cheap tour prices are a factor contributing to the impact on Hong Kong's economy during the long holiday.

When contacted, the travel agency representative did not explain why the tour price was even cheaper than the cost of a lunch in Hong Kong. However, they said it was a "customer appreciation program".

It is known that about 600 tourists registered to join this cheap tour on May 6.

Currently, one-day tours with "incomprehensibly cheap" prices are becoming a topic of interest to the Chinese public. Previously, Hong Kong also had tours with relatively affordable prices.

Chinese tourists visit Hong Kong (Photo: News).

This is a tour for 45 guests at a price of 168 yuan/person (600,000 VND). With this cost, guests can visit famous destinations in Hong Kong in one day and have lunch at a restaurant in the central area.

Along with visiting the destinations, tourists will be taken by tour guides to shops selling pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. However, a tour operator confirmed that whether or not customers want to buy is up to them, and tour guides have no right to force them.

Similarly, Thailand used the zero-dollar tour strategy to attract Chinese tourists. However, to date, tourism operators have affirmed that the longer zero-dollar tours and cheap tours exist, the more the economy is affected.

Tourists on this tour enjoy preferential or free prices, but in return they are required to visit many shopping spots. Many tourists complain that they are forced to buy high-priced but low-quality goods when they join this tour. Therefore, the Thai government has taken many measures to limit and prevent similar tours.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/du-lich/dia-phuong-dau-dau-vi-tour-re-nhu-cho-130000-dongkhach-gom-ca-bua-trua-20250508160053584.htm