A COUPLE buys a tour package to China, hoping to have a nice, relaxing time before getting back to the grind.

But midway through the holiday, the guide leaves the pair stranded in a strange town - with no idea of how to get to their next port of call.

Their fault: They did not spend enough money at shops and hotels the guide took them to.

This is what happened to a group of mainland China tourists in Hong Kong last year, and Singaporeans could find themselves in similar situations too.

Consumers Association of Singapore (Case) and the National Association of Travel Agents of Singapore (Natas) issued this caution yesterday while lashing out against "zero tour fares".

This refers to a practice wherein a tour agency sells a package and then - instead of organising the programme and ensuring the tourists are looked after - hive off the group to an agent in the destination country.

These foreign agents do not get a share of the tour fee and rely only on the tourists spending extra money on additional tours and at shops they are taken to, to cover costs and earn money by way of commission.

This leads to undue pressure on tourists to spend, said Natas CEO Robert Khoo, slamming the practice as "unethical" and undermining standards of professionalism in the travel industry.

It also means that the tour fare paid - whatever the amount - may have no direct relation to the quality of service.

The tour groups are simply being bought and sold by agencies with little regard to the tourists' welfare, watchdogs in the region added.

The warning here comes after similar alerts were issued in China and Hong Kong last week, where tourism authorities called for tighter regulations, including standard contracts between agents and travellers.

Two scenarios of zero fee tours were cited by Case and Natas in a press release yesterday:

» When a Singapore agent receiving a group from China is pressured by the agent there to slash prices in order to secure the deal.

» When intense competition among agents here leads to them paying the China agent to be allowed to host a group.

While the problem may not be prevalent, the potential is there - and the reverse could happen to groups travelling out of Singapore.

Case and Natas warned Singaporeans to choose agencies carefully and to pay attention to itineraries.

They should ask the agency if it is the "principal agent" - meaning that it will bear the full responsible for the tour - or if it is a "secondary agent", which means it has hooked up with a firm in the destination country.

And if a package seems too cheap to be true, it probably is, said Mr Khoo.

Consumers can also check if their agent is accredited by Natas, the umbrella body for tour agencies in Singapore.

Case president Yeo Guat Kwang said: "Consumers who may not even realise the tour they signed up for is a 'zero tour fare' group will be subjected to undue pressures to spend more than expected, and this could arguably be an unfair practice under the Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act."

arti@sph.com.sg