In much of the world, discrimination is illegal. And rightly so.
But if you are a traveller, you’ve probably been the serial victim of one form of discrimination that is generally legal and extremely common — before you’ve even left home.
Price discrimination is, according to Moira McCormick, “a pricing strategy that charges customers different prices for identical goods or services according to certain criteria”.
It happens when you search for airfares and accommodation online. And it happens when you pay entry to certain attractions when you are on the road, as well as at markets where the vendor “sees you coming”. (Of course, it happens at home that way too. Ever tried to buy a car?)
Although it would probably cause an outcry in Australia, the US or the UK, it is perfectly normal in many countries for tourists to be charged more than the locals for entries into museum, galleries and other cultural and entertainment venues.
I’ve faced it in Russia and Thailand — although I did dodge it in a museum in Belarus, where a local person bought the tickets and told me not to open my mouth to betray my foreign status. I just nodded my head and said “da”.
Of course, prices go up and down all the time, so the “discrimination” you face could be dictated by natural market forces. But when you get into a taxi and the driver prefers to quote you a price rather than use the meter, you can be pretty sure that you’re being ripped off.
If you know that is illegal — as it is, for instance, in Malaysia and Thailand — you can point that out. But you could get into a confrontation that you won’t win.
There’s not a lot you can do about it. Some IT folk advise clearing your computer’s cookies before you make an online booking, because — it is alleged — some sites detect frequent visitors and attempt to charge them more on the basis that they “know” the person is ready to make a purchase and ripe to be gouged.
Good old-fashioned bargaining may work when you are actually out and about in a foreign place, but major stores generally will not discount. Museums aren’t going to compromise on their set fees — unless, of course, you do a good job of convincing them that you are a local.
While this pricing policy might seem wrong, there is the argument that the place “belongs” to the people of that country, so they are entitled to a discount or free entry. And there’s also the argument that tourists are subsidising an attraction that the locals benefit from most, so should not be forced to pay more.
As is often the case in travel and in life, sometimes you just have to go with the flow.
From a Twitter contact: “During the early 90’s I tried to buy a touristy gift on the Gold Coast [Australia] to send to the UK. In a Japanese Run Duty Free Shop I found a Kangaroo Scrotum Coin Purse that was priced $200!!! I had bought the same thing 2 years earlier in Alice Springs for $4.50.”
Update, November 22, 2018: A British man with a Thai wife told me was charged 10 times the standard local fare to visit a national park in Thailand.
