I recently bought a ticket online at Golden Village's website for the movie, 7 Letters. On top of the price of the movie ticket of $8.50, I had to pay a "convenience fee" of $1.50, which is about 18 per cent of the ticket price.

While I was impressed with how the online system has evolved, where one can simply go paperless by presenting the QR code for access to the cinema, I was taken aback by the "convenience fee".

To increase its productivity and be less reliant on manpower, Golden Village should encourage more people to purchase tickets online so it can rely less on over-the-counter ticket purchases.

However, an 18 per cent charge on the ticket purchase is high, and it in fact encourages people to go to the cinema to buy tickets instead.

Rather than penalise people for going online to buy tickets by imposing such a fee, Golden Village should consider giving incentives or discounts to patrons who leverage technology to enjoy the service, and make it more costly for those who decide on the traditional purchase process - not the other way round.

The same shift in mindset is required of other organisations, such as Sistic, which imposes an administrative charge per ticket for online bookings.

Annie Chang (Mrs)