New Zealand’s tourism and fair trading authorities are looking into the actions of a rogue tour-operator who promised a group of Chinese tourists the best sightseeing in New Zealand � and then took them instead to several public parks.
A promised grand buffet Christmas dinner turned out to be a free meal for the homeless and destitute put on by an Auckland soup kitchen.
“I thought it was a real bargain, but the main reason we decided to go with him [the tour organiser] was because we thought it would be handy to have a local guide who spoke Mandarin,” one of the tourists told New Zealand TV channel TVNZ.
“I was shocked to find out later from media reports that the Christmas lunch was a charity lunch for the poor and homeless, and that most of the places we had been taken to were free and were not meant for tourists.”
The tourists say the operators promised them farms, geyser parks and buffet dinners.
The New Zealand Herald quoted Ming Xi, a visitor from Wuhan, saying that he and 10 other Chinese tourists were taken to the City Mission lunch by the tour leader, who explained to them that the event was an annual “buffet treat”, specially organised by the New Zealand Government for citizens and visitors.
In reality, the dinner was intended for people unable to afford a Christmas meal � and the tourists’ presence at it sparked widespread public outrage.
The operator charged NZD88 per person for the tour, the tourists say.
In another insult, a so-called special cultural dinner turned out to be a vegetarian meal at what appears to have been a Hare Krishna free restaurant, where the tourists were asked to chant, sing and dance before eating. Na na na na, hey hey !!
A Tourism New Zealand official told the NZ Herald the problems appeared to have stemmed from the visitors deciding to buy the tour from someone they met in the street. As a result, the promised geysers, m&d pools and a relaxing soak in a Rotorua hot mineral pool turned out to be a visit to Rotorua’s public Kuirau Park, with the opportunity to immerse their feet in its free public foot bath.
A special Kiwi gourmet barbecue lunch turned out to be a sausage sizzle on a public barbecue pit.
Written by : Peter Needham
A promised grand buffet Christmas dinner turned out to be a free meal for the homeless and destitute put on by an Auckland soup kitchen.
“I thought it was a real bargain, but the main reason we decided to go with him [the tour organiser] was because we thought it would be handy to have a local guide who spoke Mandarin,” one of the tourists told New Zealand TV channel TVNZ.
“I was shocked to find out later from media reports that the Christmas lunch was a charity lunch for the poor and homeless, and that most of the places we had been taken to were free and were not meant for tourists.”
The tourists say the operators promised them farms, geyser parks and buffet dinners.
The New Zealand Herald quoted Ming Xi, a visitor from Wuhan, saying that he and 10 other Chinese tourists were taken to the City Mission lunch by the tour leader, who explained to them that the event was an annual “buffet treat”, specially organised by the New Zealand Government for citizens and visitors.
In reality, the dinner was intended for people unable to afford a Christmas meal � and the tourists’ presence at it sparked widespread public outrage.
The operator charged NZD88 per person for the tour, the tourists say.
In another insult, a so-called special cultural dinner turned out to be a vegetarian meal at what appears to have been a Hare Krishna free restaurant, where the tourists were asked to chant, sing and dance before eating. Na na na na, hey hey !!
A Tourism New Zealand official told the NZ Herald the problems appeared to have stemmed from the visitors deciding to buy the tour from someone they met in the street. As a result, the promised geysers, m&d pools and a relaxing soak in a Rotorua hot mineral pool turned out to be a visit to Rotorua’s public Kuirau Park, with the opportunity to immerse their feet in its free public foot bath.
A special Kiwi gourmet barbecue lunch turned out to be a sausage sizzle on a public barbecue pit.
Written by : Peter Needham
