A TRAVEL group which undertook a 23-day tour of eight countries on five continents with a budget of US$3,000 per person returned to Shenzhen on Friday, the Daily Sunshine said Saturday.
The group arrived at the Hong Kong airport Thursday night after visiting a total of 22 cities in Britain, Germany and Italy in Europe, Morocco in Africa, the United States and Mexico in North America and Fiji and New Zealand in the Asia-Pacific region starting June 20.
However, the total cost of the tour was more than double the original US$3,000 budget set by the group leader Zhu Zhaorui, who has written a best-selling book “Around the World on US$3,000” in 2004. The book was based on his previous travel experience around the world with a budget of little over US$3,000.
“I have spent at least US$7,000 on this tour,” said Gao Feng, the only Shenzhen traveler in the group after fellow Shenzhener Dong Zhiwen dropped out of the group and returned to the city in the middle of the tour for unspecified reasons.
Gao said the extra US$4,000 was mostly spent on food, which cost US$30 on average daily, accommodation and fees for local tourist guides. “We have spent quite some amount of extra money on hotel rooms after we found out the accommodations we have booked in advance were too shabby,” said Gao.
Gao said when the group arrived in London, the first stop of the tour, all the members were “shocked” to see how simple the hotel rooms they had reserved were. “After a nearly 14-hour flight, we simply wanted a more comfortable bed to rest ourselves with 22 busy days ahead,” Gao told the Daily Sunshine.
Zhu told the newspaper before their departure that the major part of the budget was spent on transportation and accommodation.
Airport taxes, fees for tourist guides and other expenses were also not included in the budget. The expenditure surpassed US$7,000 after visa fees and membership fees for Zhu’s Web site were taken into account, according to Gao.
Some of the group members were unhappy with the tour, and returned to Hong Kong ahead of schedule, the newspaper said. They asked Zhu to disclose the expenditure details, but Zhu rejected the request.