Cheap Thai holidays disappoint Chinese

cnn asia ^

[maui_hawaii]

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- The growing stream of Chinese vacationers would seem to be good news for Thailand's tourism business. Perhaps not.

The competition among tour operators to provide cheap holidays to bargain-hunting Chinese has become so fierce, Thai officials say, that everyone -- including the tourists -- is losing out.

[maui_hawaii]

"It's impossible for us to survive if most Chinese insist on having a one-week vacation fit for an emperor for a few thousand yuan" (a few hundred dollars), said Thawinrat Praepaibool, manager of Heng Chiang Travel and Services Co., a major tour operator.

A very good summation of Chinese consumers. They want a whole lot for their buck. Most want too much for their buck.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Cheap Thai holidays disappoint Chinese

Well boo hoo for the Chinese. They're free to take their business elsewhere.

[Dark Seraph]

Guess they get what they pay for, eh?

[Kaiwen]

Doesn't suprise me. In China, the Chinese tourist groups are like insects--they all wear the same t-shirts, same baseball caps, and swarm all over everything. The groups from Taiwan and Hong Kong dress better, but are even more rude and condescending. Everyone I've met in the tourism industry desperately wants to learn a foreign language, so they can move on to the better paying and more polite foreign customers.

[maui_hawaii]

The Chinese philosophy: Whats mine is mine, and whats yours is mine too...now can I have a discount?

They want everything for nothing. In America a $50 label means $50 price. In China it means that is where the bargaining begins.

[maui_hawaii]

I have found that people from Hong Kong are real clymers in every sense of the word, but once you learn how to handle them its a little better, but not much. I don't like dealing with some of the Hong Kong crowd at all. Taiwanese, I have had little problems with. Then again I am American with a Chinese tounge...

They both are major leaguers to the Mainlanders. It just depends on how bad...

[maui_hawaii]

I have seen haggling over $2 T-shirts, cans of Coke, and oh yes, who can forget haggling over the price of lunch...any and everything is up for bargain.

A printed price doesn't mean jack diddly.

We used to mark up all of our prices, like WAY up, then made everyone feel so special by giving 75% off..."just for you...because we are friends..."

[Fishing-guy]

People haggling over marked prices! Same thing happens here. To compete, some stores actually will lower the prices.

Actually, this seems to be the norm through out the world, except in US and Canada. Not sure about Europe, but I do remember seeing people bargaining over prices in Italy before.

[twntaipan]

I once saw a Taiwanese lady haggle over a 20 cent used piece of clothing--I kid you not!

[kitkat]

I once sat in a bank and listened to an East Indian haggle over INTEREST RATES. He kept it up for a long time, insisting that HE should get a higher interest rate. Did him no good.