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Confessions of a package tour snob

By Emma Walters - posted Wednesday, 2 July 2008


In planning a trip to the beaches of Thailand, someone suggested I consider a package holiday.

“I would never go on a package tour,” I snorted. “No way!”

The idea of a package holiday (to anywhere) evoked for me confused images of live sheep being transported on a cruise liner to the Middle East for slaughter, while drunkenly bleating out a rowdy chorus of Chisel’s Khe Sanh all the way from Perth to Abu Dhabi … I clearly had a deep and irrational aversion to the whole idea.

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More simply put: I’m a package tour snob.

So I headed off on my “independent” holiday and found myself at a popular holiday destination, high on a headland above Long Beach on Koh Phi Phi, Thailand.

I was staying at a difficult to access resort. This “resort” was definitely of the budget variety, with bungalows starting at about 700 bhat ($23) a night. To get there, guests had to climb up a steep headland via about 200 large rusting iron stairs. The climbing was no easy task in the 35C heat and humidity of a Thailand heading into the wet season.

Thankfully, my luggage was transported up the near vertical cliff face by an ancient and creaky, squeaky pulley system. If it didn’t look so dangerous, I would have gladly jumped on for the ride to the top. But seeing the departing guests’ luggage hurtling down to the bottom on what looked like an out of control rail car on the Blue Mountains Scenic Railway rather put me off that idea.

The bags got up the cliff face quickly and sweat-free - I did not.

But the effort was worth it.

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From the top, the view was an advertiser’s wet dream: a perfect stretch of white sand and sterling clear blue sea, framed by massive craggy limestone headlands.

There were at least two dozen speedboats and ferries in the bay, and half as many longtails, the locals' large wooden outriggers decked out with colourful paint and huge bright ribbons tied the bow.

The cheerfulness of the longtails diminished a touch when they started up their motors. The boats are powered by noisy and exposed engines - sounding like an old VW beetle without a muffler - all the while spewing large amounts of black smoke. I wondered if the boat operators will someday have to buy carbon offsets for that stuff?

To cool off after my cliff face hike, I took a drink at our resort’s outdoor patio, with the view straight from Fantasy Island. Below, a speed boat pulled into the bay and disgorged about 30 day trippers from nearby mega-resort island of Phuket.

The Phuket tourists were easily identifiable by their fluro pink loveheart stickers stuck to their T-shirts, put there so the tour organiser could easily identify them (and presumably also to tell them apart from all the other scoundrels that would otherwise be availing themselves of the tour operator’s services, gratis).

They got off the speed boat, put on bright orange life jackets, were fitted out with flippers, mask and snorkel, and then happily snorkelled their way through the next two hours or so in the gorgeous clear blue waters.

Some of them hired banana lounges on the beach for 50 bhat (about $1.50) and relaxed in the sun.

They then jumped back on the boat, had lunch (probably sandwiches, Thai curries and some beautiful fresh fruit), travelled to another destination and repeated the snorkelling/sunbaking/eating/speeding-off routine.

Sometime in the late afternoon, they sped back to Phuket.

Over the next few days, I saw this show repeated numerous times throughout the day, every day. More than 300 tourists would arrive, did their thing, and depart. And this is just one beach on one island. Meanwhile, I sat high on the hill, sipping my ice-cold banana shake, with a sense that I was having a more authentic Thai holiday than them.

But was I?

During my three-day stay at Long Beach, I snorkelled the same bay as my “packaged” friends.

My hotel was like any hotel anywhere in the world - it catered to people “not from here” and was probably not that much different to the hotel the “packagers” stayed in at Phuket.

Each day, I had lunch on the beach: a sandwich or Pad Thai with some fresh fruit.

Several times I hired a longtail (spewing black smoke and making a hell of a racket) to take me to another part of the island or another island for some snorkelling.

I sat on the same beach and hired the same banana lounges as my package compatriots. Yet somehow I felt like I was having the better holiday. But why? What was so different from my Lonely Planet-inspired holiday to their package tour holiday?

We both contributed to the Thai economy.

We both had an impact on the environment (possibly my impact was greater as I hired longtails as an individual).

We both experienced the wonder of the beautiful Andaman Sea.

We both expanded our minds and experiences beyond Australia.

We both followed a well-trod formula - mine was clearly laid out for me by the independence-loving folk at Lonely Planet, theirs by a commerce-loving package tour operator.

Aha! The difference: I also travelled to some more remote places (after doing due diligence on the place by an exhaustive check of my Lonely Planet) and “experienced” more of Thailand.

But I certainly didn’t go where Australians have never gone before. Everywhere I went, no matter how remote or difficult to get to, an “independent” (actually thousands, plus a fair share of package tourists) had been there before me.

I contributed to the local economy, I was responsible for some environmental degradation, I experienced something more than my life in Australia, and I saw some more of wonderful Thailand.

But so did my package tour friends.

Some say the difference is choice. “Packagers” don’t get to choose where they go, when they go, and who they go with.

But is this necessarily true? There are literally hundreds of package deals to Thailand to choose from. They cater to people who want different types of holidays, to different places, for different lengths of time, at different times of year, for different types of people, with different budgets. There are even “independent” style package tours.

Package tourists do have the power of choice - and they use it. The competition in the package tour market is intense.

The difference is primarily in the timing - package tourists make their choices much earlier than independent tourists. Packagers choose well in advance what they want to do, when and who with, while independents generally leave it all to the last minute.

Another big difference between packaged and independent tourists is quantity: the number of people who travel with you.

Package tourists travel in a flock, while independents are lone eagles.

But while “lone eagle” travelling can be romantic, and feel heroic and pioneering, it can also be frustrating, difficult and sometimes downright lonely.

Package tourism also has the benefit of generating economies of scale for the Thai tourist operators and hospitality industry.

The Thais (as any good capitalists) would clearly rather hire 30 sets of snorkel, fins and flippers to one person (the tour guide) rather than hire 30 sets to 30 people. Who wouldn’t? If I was a Thai tourist operator/restauranteur/resort operator, I would want as many package tours through my doors as I could handle. And if I couldn’t handle it, I’d get bigger doors.

And certainly greater numbers can allow for economies of scale and cheaper prices for the tourists.

So my trip opened my eyes to the benefits of package tourism. But I still wouldn’t choose a package for my next holiday.

Why not?

While I can see the upside of a package, I prefer to make my holiday choices daily, even though it often results in a lot more hassle, more waiting, more expense, more trudging around looking for a place to sleep, and more missed boats.

I prefer to pretend that I’m exploring new ground, even if my path has been practically trammelled before me by an army of independents. And I prefer the idea of travelling as a lone eagle, even though it’s often a lot more romantic in the fantasy than in reality.

But the main reason is, and I’m happy to admit it: I’m an irrational, disorganised, anti-social, fantasy-prone, committed package tour snob.

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About the Author

Emma Walters works at the Research Institute for Asia and the Pacific at the University of Sydney. Previously, she worked for five years at the International Federation of Journalists Asia-Pacific Office, based in Sydney. A committed internationalist and trade unionist, she has travelled extensively over the past decade throughout many countries in the Asia-Pacific region for both work and pleasure.

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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