Five Stars Tours Close Down!

[Mcf777]

this trade, many malaysian and china staff.

singaporean difficult to find......pay is very miserable for counter staff. monthly pay is less than a 1yr 2.5L road tax.

[Camrysfa]

this trade, many malaysian and china staff.

singaporean difficult to find......pay is very miserable for counter staff. monthly pay is less than a 1yr 2.5L road tax.

 

Annual outbound tour packages sold at NATAS Fairs = about SGD100 mil.

Other non NATAS Fair sales = $$?

 

Is this cake considered big?

Edited January 8, 2014 by Camrysfa

[Count-Bracula]

Shocking! Thought they were quite established? Why like that!!

[Hamburger]

customers lost $$ is one thing. But screw up the whole vacation in the last minute is really sian...Zzzzzzzzzz

[Mcf777]

 

Annual outbound tour packages sold at NATAS Fairs = about SGD100 mil.

Other non NATAS Fair sales = $$?

 

Is this cake considered big?

According to my friend, probably 5-10%. Overhead is too high.

Booth at NATAS travel very costly.

 

Some ka chang pu teh agency at Natas travel actually lost money.

Couldnt cover the 3days rental/staff OT pay.

 

Just imagine :

Europe/USA tour : S$2500 (earn about S$200 - S$300 per pax) about 10%

Air-ticket : S$1000 (earn about S$30 - S$50 per pax) about 3%

 

Nowadays air-ticket/tour package figure is very high.

Becos of the skyhigh airport taxes/fuel surcharge

A round trip ticket to USA (SIN-New York-SIN) by SQ, just taxes/fuel alone cost about S$950.

 

 

[SuPerBoRed]

customers lost $$ is one thing. But screw up the whole vacation in the last minute is really sian...Zzzzzzzzzz

its not vacation man... its chinese new year... just checked on jetstar.. charging 700+ for flights to penang.. for 除夕 and come back on sunday.. really pity those malaysian colleagues going home for CNY...

 

Next move... accreditation for travel agencies like the spas thingy some yrs ago.. Customers pay more for piece of mind..

[ChickenMob]

I think those most affected by them are those Malaysian workers returning for their CNY, if those further up can take a plane to KL before changing to buses.

those near JB will pay a lot more money for taxi....heard from friend they already upz their price sometime back.

 

now the cost of living here is too high making business overheads increasing to unacceptable level, labour and rental already take up more than 80% of their profits with not much buffer for them to tide over the slow months.....haiz..

[Chucky2007]

It's quite unusual to close 8 shops overnight if due to business losses.. Usually they close 1 at a time to down size.. Possibly personal gambling problem that affected the business?

[Jman888]

that's why china has 1 week of CNY holiday, some spend more than 4 days on transport to and fro, got money not necessary can get ticket.

[Hshs]

Last time got one quite big tour company Ken-Air Tours - also up lorry.

Ken-Air I join them LA + Las Vegas package tour. I had a very good experienced with them. Their tour guard is the best I ever met.Too bad they put all the eggs in one basket. When 911 happen Ken-Air is the one had the most impact.

[Icedbs]

 

Same.. i have never followed any tour before.. and probably never will.. Doing research and planning/booking for everything is part of the fun of travelling too..

 

There are many reasons why most people still wanna use package tour

 

1) Less hassle, less planning, less uncertainties especially if you do not know the language of that country

2) Cheaper...since agency has economy of scale. A 15 day trip to central europe (France, Italy, Swiss, Belgium, Holland) is only around $3500-3800/pax with airticket, 4-5 stars different hotes each day, all land transport covered and 2 meals a day thrown in. Try doing that Free and easy and you will never even come close to the price. And some agencies even throw in 2 days Dubai for you on the way back.

3) Family with old folks/kids will find tour package more convenient as all the transportation is taken care of.

4) Agencies typically has a way to get entrance tickets to museum/buildings/places of interest way in advance. No need to queue and less pain than trying to get those tickets yourself.

5) Travel in comfort since there is always a bus and a driver taking care of your luggages.

6) In case of mishaps (lose passport, loss of belongings, need medical etc) there is a tour leader experience enough to help you.

 

Downside however is always need to rush and not enough time at each place if you happen to like that place of interest.

 

Free and easy has its virtue, provided the group is young, has time to plan, and willing to take risk in a non-English speaking countries. For English speaking countries, I think F&E is less of an issue.

 

 

Edited January 9, 2014 by Icedbs

[Shull]

 

There are many reasons why most people still wanna use package tour

 

1) Less hassle, less planning, less uncertainties especially if you do not know the language of that country

2) Cheaper...since agency has economy of scale. A 15 day trip to central europe (France, Italy, Swiss, Belgium, Holland) is only around $3500-3800/pax with airticket, 4-5 stars different hotes each day, all land transport covered and 2 meals a day thrown in. Try doing that Free and easy and you will never even come close to the price. And some agencies even throw in 2 days Dubai for you on the way back.

3) Family with old folks/kids will find tour package more convenient as all the transportation is taken care of.

4) Agencies typically has a way to get entrance tickets to museum/buildings/places of interest way in advance. No need to queue and less pain than trying to get those tickets yourself.

 

Free and easy has its virtue, provided the group is young, has time to plan, and willing to take risk in a non-English speaking countries. For English speaking countries, I think F&E is less of an issue.

 

Different needs la. To me, planning is part of the fun.

 

My next trip is starting tomorrow, to Seoul with wifey. I manage to snag a good Business Class deal on Malaysia Airlines. SGD1500 return/pax. Compared to SQ Economy which is almost 1.1k liao.

Edited January 9, 2014 by Shull

[Nightkids]

 

Annual outbound tour packages sold at NATAS Fairs = about SGD100 mil.

Other non NATAS Fair sales = $$?

 

Is this cake considered big?

talk about NATAS fair, media always say how many thousands sales this year blah blah blah...... but the actual profit is how much? it is always 报大数 lo.......

[Lala81]

 

There are many reasons why most people still wanna use package tour

 

1) Less hassle, less planning, less uncertainties especially if you do not know the language of that country

2) Cheaper...since agency has economy of scale. A 15 day trip to central europe (France, Italy, Swiss, Belgium, Holland) is only around $3500-3800/pax with airticket, 4-5 stars different hotes each day, all land transport covered and 2 meals a day thrown in. Try doing that Free and easy and you will never even come close to the price. And some agencies even throw in 2 days Dubai for you on the way back.

3) Family with old folks/kids will find tour package more convenient as all the transportation is taken care of.

4) Agencies typically has a way to get entrance tickets to museum/buildings/places of interest way in advance. No need to queue and less pain than trying to get those tickets yourself.

 

Free and easy has its virtue, provided the group is young, has time to plan, and willing to take risk in a non-English speaking countries. For English speaking countries, I think F&E is less of an issue.

 

I think my parents went to europe on a package tour that is slightly more than a normal SQ ticket for 2 to europe.

Yes 2 days stay in dubai But that was in 2009.

Edited January 9, 2014 by Lala81

[Rezorn86]

My parents & I use to book our travel package by our own via internet, sometimes we even went to natas event to look at the p.o.i. So, im not surprise in the future that those travel agency will close shop someday even those good reputation agency.

Edited January 9, 2014 by Rezorn86

[Knoobie]

five star tours heard review always not bad comparing to some other agency..

 

some more their buses always keep to speed limit on NSHW.. maybe no money pump fuel? haha

 

anyway, their website is still up and running.. hopefully someone brings it down to prevent those not well informed from purchasing..

[Tarzan666]

Only tour Europe, is much cheaper to go via tour package...

 

Others..book on your own..i agree with Icedbs y pple still use tour..

[Celicar]

I think it is also a generation thing. For the internet savvy generation onwards, definitely some will not go with the tour package but to the older generation, tours are still the way to go. Even if it turns out to be more expensive. No right or wrong, just preference. And honestly, I'd prefer that my parents go on tour rather than book themselves, somehow it gives me some comfort of mind to know that they are being taken care of, to what extent that is true of course depends on case to case.

 

 

There are many reasons why most people still wanna use package tour

 

1) Less hassle, less planning, less uncertainties especially if you do not know the language of that country

2) Cheaper...since agency has economy of scale. A 15 day trip to central europe (France, Italy, Swiss, Belgium, Holland) is only around $3500-3800/pax with airticket, 4-5 stars different hotes each day, all land transport covered and 2 meals a day thrown in. Try doing that Free and easy and you will never even come close to the price. And some agencies even throw in 2 days Dubai for you on the way back.

3) Family with old folks/kids will find tour package more convenient as all the transportation is taken care of.

4) Agencies typically has a way to get entrance tickets to museum/buildings/places of interest way in advance. No need to queue and less pain than trying to get those tickets yourself.

5) Travel in comfort since there is always a bus and a driver taking care of your luggages.

6) In case of mishaps (lose passport, loss of belongings, need medical etc) there is a tour leader experience enough to help you.

 

Downside however is always need to rush and not enough time at each place if you happen to like that place of interest.

 

Free and easy has its virtue, provided the group is young, has time to plan, and willing to take risk in a non-English speaking countries. For English speaking countries, I think F&E is less of an issue.