“Zero-Fare” Group Tours in China: An Analytic Framework

Abstract

This study addresses the problem of the so-called “zero-fare” group tours, a terminology that is believed to be originated in Chinese media to denote a sort of inferior quality in China's outbound package tours. Previous research on this problem failed, on the one hand, to define “zero-fare” group tours in a scholarly and systematical way and, on the other, to draw a line between the cause of “zero-fare” group tours and their factual matters—in short, a distinction between what they are and why they are. In this regard, this study presents the factual matters of “zero-fare” group tours derived from a content analysis of news reports pertaining to “zero-fare” group tours over the period 2003–2010 in China. Drawing upon these factual matters, this study proposes an analytic framework to portray the problem of “zero-fare” group tours to incorporate three fundamental elements, namely, low price in the source market, inferior quality at the destination, and the “zero-fare” relationship between outbound tour operators and inbound tour operators that jointly operate group package tours. Explanatory research based on this framework can therefore proceed to inquire into the mechanism by which this framework is manifested.

“零团费” 是一个源自中文语境并被广泛运用于描述旅游服务质量的术语。就其语义而言，狭义的 “零团费” 旅游是指由于组团社和地接社不合理的团费分配关系所导致的质量低劣的包价旅游产品；广义的 “零团费” 旅游可指代中国出境旅游市场上所出现的与包价旅游产品相关的一系列服务质量问题。由于这一术语本身的非学术性和指代的模糊性，现有的 “零团费” 旅游研究一方面未能对这一质量问题进行学术化和系统化的描述，另一方面混淆了这一质量问题的事实和原因。基于此，本研究通过对 2003–2010 年中文媒体关于 “零团费” 旅游的报道进行内容分析，试图对 “零团费” 旅游进行事实性的描述。本研究提出了一个 “零团费” 旅游的分析框架，认为 “零团费” 旅游可以由三个基本要素构成，即客源市场的低廉价格，目的地的劣等服务质量，以及组团社和地接社之间的 “零团费” 关系。由于这一分析框架可以量化，未来的解释性研究可以通过分析三个要素及其关系所产生的原因来进行。

Keywords:

• “Zero-fare” group tours
• package tours
• inferior quality
• China

Keywords:

• “零团费” 旅游
• 包价旅游
• 劣等质量
• 中国

Acknowledgment

Financial assistance from the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University is acknowledged.

Notes

Somewhat similar background information on “zero-fare” group tours was presented in the introduction to a conference paper entitled “Testing for Moral Hazard at the Tourist Destination,” which was authored by the first two authors and presented at the 2011 Tourism Sciences Society of Korea International Tourism Conference, Seoul, Korea.