Overall consumer satisfaction in outbound packaged holiday tours has generally perked up but tipping and meal quality stood out to be sticking points in need of greater improvement, according to a recent Consumer Council survey on tours returning from Chinese New Year holidays.
The large-scale survey was based on the opinions of 2,514 tour members upon their arrival in the restricted luggage area of Hong Kong International Airport between February 3 and 12. A similar survey was conducted 10 years ago.
It covered a wide range of issues of consumer concern: cancellation or change of tour; additional payments on account of increased fuel surcharge or airport tax or ship boarding fee, etc.; itinerary alteration and optional programmes at extra costs; tipping (or commonly referred to in the trade as service charge).
Overall, the quality of service - reflected in consumer satisfaction or dissatisfaction - has remained rather stable over the 10-year period between 2004 and 2014, with slight improvement in some areas.
In particular, the incidence of tour cancellation or change requiring tour members to switch to other tours or change the departure date on grounds of purportedly insufficient enrolment or no plane seats available had declined from 5% to 3% of respondents this year.
Also, fewer respondents (from 0.9% to 0.5%) reported the demand for additional fees and charges by the tour operators after payment of tour prices in part or in full. The additional payments generally amounted to $10 plus to $200.
But tipping or service charge, understandably, continued to be an issue of some controversy, and unfavourable comments by some consumers.
While nearly 70% of the respondents duly paid the exact amount of service charge recommended by the travel agents, with 75% of them considering the amount to be reasonable, still 7% of the respondents disagreed.
They resented the compulsory nature as well as the high level of charge set for tipping without regard to the quality of service of tour escorts and guides. It was also applicable to all, adults and children alike, and even on days of non-activity (for example, departure for airport).
The dissatisfaction was more evident among members of European tours, with the service charge at $140 per day per head. Tipping could add up to no small a sum for a family of four on a tour of, say, 10 days - amounting to a sizeable $5,600.
It seems that the transparency of the prevailing tipping practice leaves much to be desired as many consumers were under the mistaken impression that it was obligatory to pay the full exact amount. Improvement in communication regarding such practices is needed to ensure increased consumer awareness and understanding.
Travel agents should therefore point out to tour members the voluntary nature of service charge which is set at the upper limit and as a recommendation for reference only. It is up to the consumers to decide whether or not to tip or how much to tip. Such practice will encourage better standard of service.
Other areas of unfavourable comments from the tour respondents included: too much time spent on shopping activities; optional programmes at additional fees arranged during the tour; and meals lacking in variety, quantity and quality.
In particular, tour members felt strongly about being taken to expensive shops and spend disproportionally long periods of time; some complained they were taken to similar shops twice for shopping during the trip, which is a waste of time in their opinion.
Furthermore, some respondents reflected the limited number of sightseeing spots and duration; for instance, what was scheduled to stay for more than an hour was cut short to within 1 hour, and an originally 5-day itinerary was compressed to be completed in 4 days leaving the last day idle with no activity.
The survey also produced some interesting findings not seen in the previous survey. Some respondents indicated that their tour price was inclusive of all costs and expenses including tipping, airport tax, fuel surcharge and travel insurance. The emergence of such all-in-one-price tours certainly offers consumers an alternative of choice in the marketplace.
The survey revealed also a high proportion (20.1%) of the respondents had taken tours bound for Europe - second only to mainland China (20.8%) by a slight margin. In 2004, only 4.6% of respondents were from European tours.
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