Shanghai Disney's current ticket agent is "running away with money", and the ticketing mechanism needs to be strengthened supervision

on Aug. 17, according to media reports, tourists bought low-cost Shanghai Disneyland tickets through ticketing agents, only to find out that the ticket had run away. In addition to tourists, the deposits of some travel agency agents have also been wasted.

original title: the interest chain after the ticketing mess at Shanghai Disneyland

the popular summer destination Shanghai Disneyland has once again encountered ticketing chaos. On Aug. 17, according to media reports, tourists bought low-cost Shanghai Disneyland tickets through ticketing agents, only to find out that the ticket had run away. In addition to tourists, the deposits of some travel agency agents have also been wasted. Although Shanghai Disney has a clear official authorized sales channel, and requires a uniform price, can not enter the secondary market, but now Shanghai Disney tickets have been subcontracted and resold layer by layer, and even agents have run away. Industry insiders said that behind the chaos in the ticketing system, it is not only the ticket agents authorized by Shanghai Disney who have breached the contract, but also a grey interest chain of tickets, which is an industry issue that needs attention.

strong > / strong >

/ strong > it is reported that in July this year, tourists bought tickets to Shanghai Disneyland from people who claimed to be ticket agents and transferred money through Alipay. After providing the relevant identity information, the tourist was quickly told that the booking was successful. But five days later, the tourists were told that the "master" who issued the ticket had run away, and several deceived tourists were told that the tickets booked at that time had not been successfully issued, and that the order numbers given to them by the "master" were all fake. After the incident, the deceived tourists sought refunds from ticket agents one after another, but people who called themselves ticket agents were also unable to give tourists a refund and claimed to have lost millions of yuan.

according to insiders, the tickets of Shanghai Disneyland have been subcontracted layer by layer, and the money for booking tickets has been handed over step by step from the lowest-level agent to the first-level agent, and after the ticket has been successfully issued, the order information has been returned to consumers step by step, from which agents at all levels have made a profit difference. But in fact, except for the officially authorized first-class agents, the rest of the agents do not have the qualification to authorize ticket sales.

it can be seen that the ticket agent contacted by tourists, as a higher-level agent, is in fact only a "middleman", and the tickets purchased by tourists may have gone through multiple "middlemen". And the "middleman" does not even know what level of agent he is. So once there is a superior agent "running away" situation, downstream consumers will become victims.

the relevant staff of Shanghai Disney told reporters that if the reservation is made on the official website of Shanghai Disney, Disney will try its best to solve the problems for tourists, but if it is booked through an authorized travel agency or online travel platform, the relevant after-sales service and problems should also be solved by a third party. Disney customer service said in an interview with the media: "authorized travel companies, travel agencies and so on are our partners, and they have agreed prices with us." You give them the money, the money is earned by them, and the relevant after-sales service is also looking for them, and we have no right to interfere. "

strong > the chain of interests behind resale / strong >

according to the official website of Shanghai Disneyland, the channels for tourists to purchase tickets are divided into official ticketing channels, that is, official ticketing channels, on-site ticketing and third-party ticketing channels for officially authorized sales. Among them, the officially authorized channels of Shanghai Disney include 36 partners such as China Travel Service, Donkey Mother and Ctrip.

it is understood that at first, when Shanghai Disney signed an agreement with a cooperative enterprise, it asked for a uniform price, which was directed to the client and could not flow into the second-tier market. In other words, if all parties comply with the regulations, there should be no channels other than authorized agents for tickets, and there is no difference in price. So how do tickets flow from officially authorized agents to the secondary market?

Lin Huanjie, director of the China theme Park Research Institute, told reporters that this may be due to a breach of contract by authorized agents in order to quickly sell tickets to Shanghai Disneyland and increase sales. transfer the business that should not have been subcontracted to a third party for consignment, and did not strictly examine the credibility and economic strength of the third party, but the agents are mixed, the quality of service is mixed, and even illegal operation.

Why is the momentum of Shanghai Disneyland tickets particularly prominent? According to industry insiders, Shanghai Disneyland is a popular summer destination with tight tickets and high ticket prices, coupled with international brands such as Disney, which is very attractive to many unauthorized agents. so there are a lot of third-party agents flocking to it.

at the same time, the reporter found that the agency tickets, which are earned layer by layer, can still be sold at a price lower than the official standard, thus gaining a price advantage in the market. An agent revealed: "if a ticket sold by a first-class agent costs 460 yuan each, the price sold to us is 410 yuan." At that time, the purchase price of the ticket that went wrong was 415 yuan, and the resale price was 445 yuan. Such a ticket has a profit of 30 yuan. " At present, the price of Disney's official website and formal authorized channels is 499 yuan.

on a shopping platform, the reporter also found that a number of small unauthorized travel agencies sold tickets to Shanghai Disneyland at prices ranging from 300 yuan to 350 yuan, and the other party said that they did not have to worry about not being able to enter the park, which was a "regular channel" ticket. But what is different from the formal channels is that the customer service of Shanghai Disney clearly told the reporter that there are two opportunities to re-sign into the park after buying tickets, as well as on platforms such as Ctrip and Donkey Mom. however, unauthorized agents who sell at low prices cannot change the entry date.

then why can the price be lower than the standard price? Shanghai Disney has said that the company gives "team prices" to various partners at a price lower than the market price, while some licensees subcontract tickets at low prices. Lin Huanjie said that the low-price subcontracting is related to the licensees' pursuit of sales, and they have ceded some of the ticket discounts granted by Shanghai Disneyland to subordinate third-party agents in an effort to achieve the goal of selling and collecting tickets quickly.

Lin Huanjie also told reporters that for authorized agents, the substantial completion of sales and the rapid growth of sales also mean that tickets can be obtained at lower prices, thus improving profitability and the competitiveness of the industry. It is because generally speaking, after the licensee has completed enough quantity each year or quarter, the ticket price for the next issue will be even lower, while some licensees do not have sufficient sales capacity and want momentum at the same time, so there is a situation of subcontracting the tickets.

generally speaking, authorized agents pursue sales in order to improve their competitiveness and hope to get lower discount prices, thus subcontracting tickets to lower-level agents, while lower-level agents continue to subcontract tickets in order to avoid risks, earn the price difference, and quickly recover the ticket money.

strong > ticketing mechanism needs to strengthen supervision / strong >

reselling low-priced Disney tickets through informal channels, which not only disturbs the order of market competition and breaks the Disney ticket price system, but also brings harm to consumers.

according to people in the legal profession, "if the ticketing agency is confirmed by the police to have the subjective intention of fraud and deception, and the amount of money involved reaches a certain amount, then it may bear the criminal responsibility for the crime of fraud; if the channel business does run away with the money, it may also be suspected of constituting the crime of job embezzlement in addition to the crime of fraud, in addition to bear the corresponding civil liability to compensate for the loss of the victim."

in fact, when the ticket booking of Shanghai Disneyland was first launched, the travel companies that the park cooperated for the first time began to compete "secretly", but the way of competition was through compliance means. For example, offline travel agencies package holiday products containing Disney tickets, the total price is lower than the combined price of individual items; online travel agencies sell and promote Disney ticket business, through Disney product drainage, increase the overall traffic of the website.

in view of the chaos in the ticketing market, for some authorized agents of subcontracted tickets, Lin Huanjie suggested that Shanghai Disney should withdraw the authorization of subcontracted ticket agents and investigate liability for breach of contract.

Zhang Jinshan, a professor at Beijing Union University, said that consumers should also strengthen their consumer awareness, buy tickets from formal channels, transfer payment to the guarantee platform, and leave vouchers at the same time; relevant departments should also strengthen the supervision of travel agencies and platform authorization qualifications.

Edit: mary