Each tour includes 4 to 8 shopping stops in South Korea, with many products lacking clear origin or production date information.
The Seoul city government has conducted undercover inspections following recent allegations of forced shopping on tours from Vietnam and China to South Korea.
Seoul authorities hired foreign countries to pose as tourists on seven low-cost package tours—three sold in China and four sold in Vietnam—to assess the quality of these programs.
Vietnamese tourists are always in the top of the list of visitors to Korea.
Most packages were found to focus heavily on shopping rather than sightseeing, which Seoul’s tourism authorities stated detracted from the visitors’ ability to enjoy the history and culture of the Korean capital.
Each tour included between four and eight visits to local shopping centers, where many of the products sold did not clearly indicate their origin or production date.
Reports suggest that tour guides treat tourists differently depending on how much they spend on shopping, frequently urging them to make purchases.
In one instance, a tour guide prevented tourists from leaving a shopping center for 40 minutes until they bought something.
In contrast to the intense shopping schedules, the sightseeing programs were brief and often canceled.
In one case, the organizer did not provide an alternative activity after a visit to Seoul Forest was canceled due to rain, leaving tourists to spend time at their hotel instead.
Based on recent findings, Seoul has announced it will crack down on forced shopping during tours, seeking cooperation from the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism and pursuing legal action against low-quality programs if necessary.
Officials emphasized that not all travel packages are of low quality, noting that this special inspection focused on a few low-cost packages, according to The Korea Herald.
@Thanhnien.vn
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Source: Vietnam Insider