Dual Pricing
Found a hilarious travel article on Bootnall today about the luxury tax…or dual pricing for foreigners as it is called:
The Luxury Tax – Asia, Europe, South America
By: Adam Jeffries Schwartz
The following is a guide to how the luxury tax is levied, worldwide.
ASIA
China has the highest tax in the region! Charging a hundred times the regular price is typical. If you negotiate at all, they will stand two inches in front of your face, and scream You PAY, you PAY NOW.
Note: Exactly!!!
In India a bunch of bananas costs four cents. The bidding starts at 25 cents. You can get the price down to 12 cents. You really get to know the Banana lady. This process starts completely new every single day. What is time, anyway?
Note: Read “A Fine Balance” by Rohinton Mishtry about the begging industry in India. Should be required reading for every single person setting out on a journey.
Generally the tax in Thailand is collected painlessly. Tourists are corralled in “fun” ways – special parts of Bangkok, tours of native people in the north, island time – none of which have a “normal” price, fine with the vast majority of travellers. The real tax is for falangs (long nosed devils) who live in Thailand all the time. Falangs own 49% of their business; their Thai partner owns the other 99%. (Ha! This is funny!) Before the last corruption scandal, the lying and stealing escalated. No one gave correct prices or change for anything. This may be better now.
Note: This is one of the reasons it is better to stay in one country for awhile. Ask a local what the normal price is for anything you want to buy and then tack on a few baht for “luxury tax.” I once took a taxi to a grocery store. The traffic was backed up in front of my apartment and in my hurry I left behind two large bags of grocery. Once up in my room I received a phone call. The taxi had braved the traffic to bring back my grocery! He had already left the apartment or I would have given him a hefty tip! The worst thing about Thailand is that they make friends with you. (my son lives there.) And then you wait for the shoe to drop…what is it they want from you?
Singapore has the lowest luxury tax in the area. The anti-corruption is breathtaking; it’s one of the things dictatorships do best. But I’m in no mood to quibble, it’s so much cleaner than at home. Malaysia is impressively low also. Everyone is a sweetie pie in Laos – go there.
Note: Ditto regarding Laos! And Burma! So sweet!
Note: He misses Viet Nam! One day in a northern village I got into an argument with a boy selling post cards. I already buy postcards, I said, truthfully. Just buy from me so I can eat today, he says…untruthfully. That’s what they all say. He has been sent here from Hanoi because it’s a tourist enclave for hiking foreigners. He pestered me until I could stand no more. Finally I said that if I bought postcards from every boy selling them I would have no more money…truthfully. Then he got angry. Oh yes, he said…you can just go back to America and get some more money!
EUROPE
Greece’s taxes are astronomically high. The harder they slam the change on the counter, the more they are stealing. But you want to get off the island, don’t you? It helps if you speak Greek! Greek.(I¡.$B%9. Italy is the most improved. I have no idea why. On my first trip in 1991, absolutely everyone chiselled, last summer no one did. A mystery. Germany has the lowest luxury tax, Germans do everything correctly. Netherlands also. The luxury tax is horrendous in Croatia, but the scenery is incredible. Bosnia has the lowest tax and the most likable people. See for yourself. Ditto for Turkey.
Note: In Prague they just steal…which is why I lost my laptop computer from my backpack on the subway.
Note: On an island in Greece I once bought a piece of fruit in a little market. I gave the vendor a bill and he put a coin on the counter. I looked at it in amazement. If I hadn’t been paying attention I would have paid $10 for a five cent item!
SOUTH AMERICA
Argentina has the lowest luxury tax, they’re too proud to steal. Buenos Aires is the exception, where the passions are: football, grilled meat and ripping off tourists, in that order. The peso and the U.S. dollar used to have parity. Now the peso is worth thirty cents; they have to make it back somehow, don’t they? Brazil is the worst. It’s not their fault, they are so beautiful, you really should buy them a soda. Maybe their mother really is sick.
Note: In my experience the middle east was the worst. In Egypt they will tell you something costs two pounds. You give them the money and not knowing I am American instead of British, they say, no, English pounds, which would be several times the value. I just walk off! Then as a female I have to deal with “banana? 30 minutes I give you banana!! Took me a minute to figure that one out. Or to my husband…want a new wife? I get you new wife! Well, this doesn’t have to do with dual pricing…just dual ideas.
Note: Having just arrived in Morocco, my husband had trouble moving the decimal in his head so he paid $40 for a taxi instead of $4.00. Oh, I give you money back..but first I show you Tangier! Not wanting to pick a fight right off the bat we took him up on his offer since we had 3 hours to wait for the overnight train to Marrakech. Got back $6. Oh well, we saw Tangier lights from lofty heights!
Note: Africans are incredibly sophisticated…they will rig up a scam so subtle you won’t even know it is happening until it is over. Or you will just get mugged. I still loved them…especially in Malawai.
Note: And Mexico? Having been here a year, I don’t ask the price..I just give them what I know to be the correct amount. Although one vendor who I had become friends with during the teacher strike told me “special price for you…a raboso for $10.” I knew the price should have been $8 so I just laughed. He laughed. We both knew what was going on. I gave him the $10. I didn’t need a raboso (shawl) but there were virtually no tourists in Oaxaca at the time and I knew he was having trouble feeding his four kids. However, yesterday I was shopping for another apartment if/when I return to Oaxaca. I found a darling little Mexican style casita! How much? An outlandish $900 a month…about three times what it was worth! It was obvious I was American.
Now we all know that all people in all countries are not dishonest…including the US of A. Ever been told by the mechanic in Cleveland that your car needs $800 worth of repairs? But patterns emerge if you travel enough.
Tags: Asia, Burma (Myanmar), China, Dual Pricing, Greece, Mexico, Middle East, Morocco, Oaxaca, Thailand, Travel Tips, Turkey, Viet Nam
Zoe
The ultimate in luxury tax! See my post today on “A Dongle?” Didn’t know as a foreigner in Thailand that
I have a reputation of frequenting porn sites!
Dear Laughing Nomad,
Glad you thought my piece was funny. I didn’t leave countries on purpose–am working on more pieces. Every week some new ones appear on my column: Observations. After.
cheers, adam
love your tag.
Yes, and in Egypt and India they do this too! Often it is a
fee for taking your camera in. Video cameras are expecially expensive.
Eunice
Got this email from a friend:
I loved your “Dual Prices” piece. Another example in Thailand is the entrance fee to parks, palaces and some temples-often free for Thais, but 20 to 500 bht for non-Thai.