Last Saturday my son announced that he had a blinding toothache, so we whipped him off to the dentist, who declared the tooth unsaveable, and pulled it.

Nothing unusual about that, I suppose – but what’s it got to do with tourism?

Well, when I came to pay, the girl behind the desk told me it’d be R190.00 – but when I took out my debit card, she said: “Oh no, if you’re paying by card, it’ll be R345.00.”

I find that kind of thing despicable, but I also find that happens all too often in tourism, and, if you’ll excuse a smelly pun – it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

As an industry, I think we ought to stop doing it.

Couple of things: guest houses that charge extra for debit and credit card payments (granted, usually in the region of about R25.00, so not too painful, but still…); and the big one, of course – airport taxes. You think you’re flying to London for five thousand rand, but when you come to pay, it’s eight-and-a-half. Or you think you’re going on your dream beach holiday for ten grand, but when you come to pay, it’s twelve. You know the drill.

I’ve checked with the panjandrums, and they tell me that there’s nothing illegal about adding items to the price you quote, as long as it’s clear from the start that you’ll be doing so. But the thing is – what’s right in the law isn’t always best in practice.

Not that I’m suggesting we do anything illegal – it’s just that I consider myself an average consumer (a bit below average, actually, because I seriously hate shopping), and that I feel safer – yes, safer – going shopping in a supermarket than I do shopping for accommodation, flights, car hire, or even restaurants. Because when I pick up a block of butter in the supermarket, I know that I’m going to pay twenty five rand for it – and that I won’t be slapped with extra taxes or penalties for using my card when I get to the till.

Yes, I know that those charges are built in: but I don’t have to calculate them, or worry about them. The supermarket does that for me. I have twenty five bucks to spend, and I spend it. And when those painfully ugly supermarket ads promise that my butter’s going to cost twenty five rand, it costs twenty five rand.

And that makes the whole thing, in my mind, a clean sale. I’m carrying the cost of the various transactions, I know, but the supermarket is responsible for paying them, so it doesn’t burden me with the task of working them out for myself. And the supermarket doesn’t hide behind any misleading advertising. ‘Transparent’ as our advertising in the tourism industry may be, the fact is that buying a holiday is often an emotional decision, and I, like most consumers don’t make good decisions when my emotions are involved. That is to say, I don’t consider all the facts – so if you tell me I’m going to fly to London for five grand, but then whisper ‘but you’re going to have to pay an extra three-and-a-half in taxes,’ I’m not going to hear you very well.

And then I’m going to be disappointed.

And there’s nothing good about a disappointed customer.

So, to answer my question – include them in the price, don’t build them on. No matter how ‘transparently’ you pretend to do so.