On May 5, Xinjiang reported that two travel agencies had maliciously "dumped tours," resulting in hundreds of tourists stranded, and mentioned that the two travel agencies were actually the same people responsible for specific operations. Yesterday, a former employee of the travel agency involved said in an interview with a reporter from Beijing Youth Daily that the travel agency where she worked at the time issued a "lowest tour fee on the whole network", sometimes as little as 22 yuan for inter-provincial tours. After the tourists pay the first tour fee, in addition to bringing shopping to earn rebates, the travel agency will also use a variety of reasons to let tourists "pay the tour fee", and dumping customers is also one of the means to force tourists to pay more.

The "dumping group" left 270 tourists stranded

Travel agencies were notified in October last year

The Xinjiang Cultural and Tourism Department reported on May 5 that since mid-April this year, a number of incidents of travel agencies maliciously "dumping tours" have occurred in Xinjiang, leaving 22 tourists stranded in Urumqi, Changji, Turpan and other places.

According to the circular, the incident was caused by Xiong Le International Travel Co., Ltd. and Xinjiang Juncheng International Travel Co., Ltd. because tourists did not meet their expectations for shopping, refused to perform the contract during the itinerary, and instructed the tour guide or full accompaniment to "dump the group".

A person named Xu Dandan was mentioned several times in the briefing. On the one hand, Xu Dandan is the person in charge of Xiong Le International Travel Agency, on the other hand, Xu Dandan has also provided relevant documents and materials for Xinjiang Juncheng International Travel Agency and paid the registration fee for the agency company. The Xinjiang Department of Culture and Tourism said that it has been basically determined that Xiong Le International Travel Co., Ltd. and Xinjiang Juncheng International Travel Co., Ltd. are actually responsible for specific business for the same group of personnel.

The Beiqing News reporter noticed that in July last year, the Xinjiang Cultural Tourism Department reported on the dumping of travel agencies related to Xu Dandan, which also involved hundreds of tourists at that time.

Who is Xu Dandan? Why did she maliciously dump the group, causing so many tourists to be stranded?

Attract tourists with "extremely low-priced" tour fees

Since then, it has been requested to continue to "pay the tour fee"

"She just uses extremely low tour fees to attract people to pay the registration fee, and then find a way to ask for further money." A former employee who worked in a travel agency run by Xu Dandan told the Beiqing News reporter that she worked in a travel agency opened by Xu Dandan two or three years ago, and soon found that the tour group fees offered by the travel agency were surprisingly low, "It can be said that in the entire travel circle, you can't find a lower tour fee." For example, if you travel from a province in eastern China to a province in western China, the tour fee is only 98 yuan, and the price of other tour groups will be as low as 199 yuan, 398 yuan, etc. Although such a tour fee is difficult to cover even the cost of travel round-trip, it will still attract some people to sign up. The former employee recalled that once tourists paid the tour fee, travel agencies would use various reasons to ask tourists to pay further tour fees, and many tourists had to continue to pay in order to complete the tour because they had already paid the first tour fee. Even if a tourist requests a refund, the travel agency will refuse it for various reasons.

The Beiqing Daily reporter noticed that such a routine was repeated in the recent case of Xinjiang travel agency dumping tours. According to the circular, some travel agencies involved in this case released the minimum publicity of Xinjiang tourism products of 1980,18 yuan/18 days and bought one got one free, and the average tour fee for each tourist for 4000 days was less than 800,<> yuan (the actual cost was more than <>,<> yuan). In one of the dumping incidents, Xu Dandan arranged for tourists to arrive in Xinjiang and asked each tourist to pay <> yuan on the grounds of bad weather in Kanas, but the tourists refused, and the tour group was subsequently dumped.

In addition, arranging tourists to shop for rebates is also one of the ways that former employees mentioned that travel agencies make money. On April 4 this year, a tour group from Shanghai received by Xiong Le International Travel Agency was dumped in Urumqi because of insufficient group consumption.

The former employee admitted that the reason for the dumping of the tour may be that the travel agency tried to force tourists to pay more and shop more in this way. Sometimes although tourists pay the registration fee, travel agencies do not arrange transportation and accommodation in time, and do not make temporary arrangements until the last moment, which leads to the inability to guarantee travel conditions. According to a notice issued by the Xinjiang Culture and Tourism Department in 2022, 37 Gansu tourists traveled to Xinjiang, and the tour guides and vehicles were all appointed or contacted by Xu Dandan, but because Xu Dandan did not pay the tour guide for the subsequent trip, the tourists were stranded.

Another person in charge of a travel agency who has worked with Xu Dandan said that he had previously organized tourists to travel to Hainan, and Xu Dandan was responsible for receiving him. He had previously made an appointment with tourists and other parties, and the trip was a pure play group, and he could arrange his own play after being in Hainan. But after the tourists arrived in Hainan, Xu Dandan demanded that the tourists must join the group to go shopping, otherwise they would not provide accommodation, "The tourists expressed their dissatisfaction with this and also complained to me." The person in charge said.

Hainan cooperation peers "eat melons and fall er"

The supplier said it had been in arrears for nearly 3 years

"When we joined, Xu Dandan sent us mobile phones for work, and many times the job we handled was to deal with debt collection from suppliers." Xu Dandan's former employees said that the victims of the low-cost tour included some service providers in addition to tourists.

Mr. Liu, the person in charge of a travel ticketing company, told the Beiqing News reporter that in August 2020, he supplied group train tickets for a travel agency operated by Xu Dandan in Shenzhen, and paid more than 8,8000 yuan in advance, but until now there are still more than 7000,<> yuan unpaid. At that time, Xu Dandan delayed on the grounds that the tour group buying train tickets lost money and the customer did not pay, and finally used the fact that the tickets were purchased by employees, so Mr. Liu refused to pay the ticket on the grounds that the employee asked for money.

Mr. Liu filed a lawsuit with the court, and the verdict obtained by the Beiqing News reporter showed that the court ordered Xu Dandan's travel agency operating in Shenzhen at the time to pay the fare and corresponding interest. However, public information shows that the travel agency went bankrupt and liquidated in 2022, and the public notice shows that the travel agency also owed a number of employees wages payable and economic compensation.

Many branches under the name do not have operating licenses

The Public Security and Integrated Law Enforcement Bureau intervened in the investigation

A former employee who worked at the travel agency in Shenzhen admitted that after joining the company, she found that the travel agency had not obtained a travel agency business license at all.

According to the Xinjiang Department of Culture and Tourism, Xiong Le International Travel Co., Ltd., which Xu Dandan is in charge of, holds the "Business License" and the "Travel Agency Business Operation License", but because of repeated malicious "dumping tours", the use of the Hainan Province tourism electronic itinerary system has been stopped by Haikou City, and the company has also been included in the list of abnormal operations. At present, Xiong Le International Travel Co., Ltd. has set up 14 branches nationwide, and none of the branches have obtained the "Travel Agency Business License". Xinjiang Juncheng International Travel Co., Ltd. also does not have the business qualification to operate a travel agency.

At present, the Xinjiang centralized case-handling team has opened an investigation into the two travel agencies involved in the case through the evidence and materials it has obtained. Due to the huge amount of money involved and the large number of tourists involved, it is suspected of constituting the crime of illegal operation. The centralized case-handling team has transferred the clues of the case of Xiong Le International Travel Co., Ltd. to the relevant departments of Hainan Province, where it is registered, and intends to transfer the suspected illegal operation crime of Xinjiang Juncheng International Travel Service Co., Ltd. to the public security organ for acceptance.

The Beiqing News reporter learned from the local tourism department in Haikou City, Hainan Province, that the local comprehensive law enforcement bureau has intervened to deal with the situation of Xiong Le International Travel Agency reflected in Xinjiang.

Text/Reporter Qu Chang Intern Zhang Zheng (Source: Beijing Youth Daily)