For tourists who often choose to travel independently, encountering the above situation when shopping or eating at restaurants is a common thing.
But for those who regularly go on tours and use package services from travel companies, it is not uncommon to be "ripped off" and buy products that are more expensive than usual, due to having to pay extra commissions to tour guides and drivers.
Sharing like that shows that "price gouging" has become a never-ending story, sometimes originating from the people working in the industry, causing great obstacles to the development of Vietnam tourism.
My friend, who is a tour guide for a travel company, shared that he knows of some jam factories in Da Lat that give "commissions" to tour guides and drivers from 300,000 to 600,000 VND to bring in tourists. To recoup this money, they have to raise the price by 100-200% when tourists buy something.
"Ripping off" tourists is an alarming problem in Vietnam tourism.
Although giving commission is normal in some countries with developed tourism industries such as Thailand, China, etc., it is usually only around 10% of the sales amount or simply giving a bottle of wine to the tour operator, not the type of giving money in advance and then using all kinds of tricks to "rip off" customers, collecting all the money like in Vietnam.
Also because tourists not only eat and rest, but before leaving the destination, they often have the need to buy gifts for relatives and family. Because they are not familiar with the terrain, they can only rely on tour operators or drivers for detailed instructions.
Understanding the psychology of tourists, many tour operators and drivers have turned tourists into easy "prey" for specialty shops to freely "rip off".
Some shop owners are even willing to pay a lot of money for people to bring customers to buy their products. And of course, the prices must be "pushed" up much higher than other shops.
My parents, on a trip to Nha Trang three years ago, were ripped off by the tour operator. Before returning home, my parents wanted to buy some dried seafood as gifts for their relatives, so the tour operator took them to a seafood shop on Bach Dang Street, Nha Trang City.
According to my parents, they bought 1kg of dried shrimp for 950,000 VND, because they trusted the tour operator and the store owner's advertisement.
But when I happened to stop by a sidewalk shop for a drink, through a conversation with the owner, who was a local, my parents learned that the most expensive price for 1kg of dried shrimp sold at Dam market was only 500,000 VND. The owner also added that many shops in Nha Trang have a policy of paying a commission of up to 20% to anyone who brings customers there.
Therefore, not only tour guides but also taxi and motorbike drivers are also enthusiastic about "promoting" to earn commissions. Although they knew they were "cheated", out of respect, my parents just kept quiet and did not complain or argue with the tour operator.
And after all, in the market mechanism, each person has a different business strategy. Buying and selling sometimes comes from an agreement between the buyer and seller. Therefore, when an incident occurs, the buyer, even though being "ripped off", has to stay silent, and cannot ask for fair intervention from the law.
Therefore, when traveling to a new land and seeing stores with extremely high prices, buyers should consider and find out information about prices to avoid being "ripped off".
In my opinion, the situation of "overcharging", extortion, and cheating tourists can only be reduced when the functional agencies in charge of culture, market, social order and safety and local authorities coordinate thoroughly with the tourism industry.
It is not only a matter of protection and creating a sense of comfort for tourists, but also a matter of awareness of exploiting and developing benefits for the tourism industry of each locality in particular and Vietnam in general.
In the immediate future, travel agencies should try their best to protect tourists, with stricter regulations, to limit the situation where tour guides and drivers stick to the committed tour itinerary. Don't, because of the desire for commission, recklessly take customers to places that charge "exorbitant" prices.
Those who deliberately lead guests away from the program will be severely punished or even fired.
Also, if strict standards and requirements are not established for tour operators and drivers, and many cases of "overcharging" occur frequently with customers, the travel company will be the first to suffer the consequences, because customers "will never return", leading to many business losses.
