York, the owner of a handbag shop, noticed that many tourists were visiting a watch store nearby.  Realising the potential for increased business from inbound visitors, he planned to have his shop registered with the Travel Industry Authority (TIA) through a travel agent's recommendation.

One day, when tourist guide Yvette brought a tour group to the watch store, York approached her with an offer of $10,000 and discounts from his store in exchange for recommending his shop to her travel agent.  Tempted by the proposal, Yvette recommended York's shop to her travel agent for registration without thoroughly verifying its quality, pricing, or service standards.

Once York's shop became registered, Yvette frequently brought tour groups to patronise it.  To show appreciation for Yvette's assistance, York rewarded her with an additional $5,000.

Timothy had been working as a tourist guide for a travel agent for nearly ten years.  All along, his company and several jewellery shops had agreed that the shops would rebate his company 10% of the total sales proceeds from tourists.  With the company’s expansion, Timothy was also assigned to guide inbound Mainland tour groups.  

One day, as usual, Timothy guided the tourists to the jewellery shop registered by his company.  After settling the tourists, he chatted with Tom, the shop’s proprietor.  Tom remarked that Mainland groups always brought him good profits.  In response, Timothy suggested that if Tom provided him personally with an additional 5% rebate on top of the 10% given to the company, it would give him higher incentive to promote Tom’s shop to the tourists.  He added that a tourist guide’s enthusiasm in promotion could significantly influence the tourists’ purchasing decisions.  Unable to bear the potential loss, Tom reluctantly succumbed to Timothy’s request.  To compensate for the extra commission, Tom began misleading tourists into purchasing newly launched brands, falsely claiming they were well-known models and selling them at inflated prices.

That evening after the tourists had returned to their hotel, Troy, the Mainland escort of the tour group, offered Timothy a red packet and hinted that it would bring him good luck and ensure their smooth cooperation in the future.  Thinking it was a “first-meeting gift”, Timothy accepted it gratefully.

William had emigrated to Malaysia for years and set up a restaurant in a renowned seafood centre there. At a recent travel trade exhibition held in Malaysia, William met his friend Patrick from Hong Kong. Patrick, a general manager of a Hong Kong travel agency, was responsible for designing itineraries for his company’s group tours. In order to secure Patrick’s assistance in putting his restaurant on the company’s approved list, William proposed giving Patrick $30,000 plus a further commission of $10 per head for future referral of tourists. William added that the money could be deposited in the bank account of Patrick’s wife to avoid any trouble.

Later, William’s restaurant was successfully included in the travel agency’s approved list upon Patrick’s recommendation. Soon after that, William deposited $30,000 into the bank account of Patrick’s wife.

Given the increasing demand of the hotel guests for local tour services, the hotel’s senior management decided to set up a consignment corner for a travel agency to deal with these requests. Janice, the hotel’s Marketing Manager, was assigned to the task.

It seemed only natural, therefore, for Janice to call Tommy, her brother-in-law, to enquire whether the travel agency he worked for would be interested.

In the midst of a recession, the performance of Tommy’s company had already been discouraging.

Hence, the pressure on Tommy, the Business Development Manager, to find a solution was intensified.  The prospect of winning the consignment corner came as a huge relief to Tommy.  He explained that this would save his career and urged Janice to grant the consignment contract to his travel agency. Believing that Tommy’s agency was as good as any other agencies and no one would discover their relationship, Janice made her decision easily.

A month later, as a token of gratitude, Tommy presented Janice a tour package to Hawaii as her birthday present.

Xenia was a staff member of the ticketing department of a travel agent.  Her close friend, Xaviera, worked in the sales department of an airline company.  Knowing that Xaviera was new and facing tremendous pressure to meet sales target, Xenia always encouraged her customers to purchase air tickets from Xaviera’s airline.

One day after Xaviera received a warning letter about her poor sales performance, she felt distressed and sought comfort from Xenia.  While supporting Xaviera, Xenia received a phone call from an insurance company requesting 50 air tickets for a corporate trip to a convention in Europe.   Xenia knew this would be a good opportunity to help Xaviera out of her predicament.  To secure the business, Xenia marked up prices from competing airlines when making quotations to the insurance company, steering the company toward Xaviera’s airline. As a result of the misleading pricing information provided by Xenia, the insurance company chose to book the tickets with Xaviera’s company.