Gotcha! China cracks down on rogue operators
BEJING: China is taking firm action to stamp out rogue tour operators who provide sub-standard product to outbound travellers.
The China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) has helped to launch the Chinese Citizen Outbound Travel Contract.
The contract applies to Chinese mainland travel agencies and outbound travel groups, excluding FIT travellers.
Zhang Xiqin, deputy director of CNTA, said that under the terms of the contract travel agencies would need to compensate consumers if they added unscheduled “shopping” trips to itineraries.
Other measures include:
– travel operators must not exaggerate their travel services.
– they should ask for tourists’ written approval before they transfer them to another group.
– and they must compensate tourists if they buy fake goods on a trip.
Managing director of the Australian Tourism Export Council, Matthew Hingerty, said the Australian tourism industry was in serious need of a standards overhaul in a range of areas such as tour guide licensing, a standardised and effective product rating system, and a legislative commitment by all state governments to address the issue of rogue tour operators.
“As it currently stands there is no uniform quality assurance procedures for tourism operators, no way to enforce standards and no uniform legislation for policing rogue tour operators who, particularly in the China market, provide sub-standard product to visitors,” Hingerty said.
“Queensland is the only state which has legislation to address this issue, but it is a growing problem in other areas such as New South Wales.”
In a Gold Coast blitz last year, police and Queensland fair trading officers stopped more than 50 tour coaches or buses, interviewed 40 tour guides and used interpreters to speak to more than 1100 Chinese, Korean and Japanese tourists.
Hingerty said while most Australian-based inbound tour operators working the China market were legitimate, a few bad apples had the potential to affect the entire market.
“Activities such as controlled shopping for visitors in so-called “duty free” stores where products were over-priced and often second-rate; housing them in substandard accommodation; and charging for free activities such as walking on Australian beaches were the common practice of rogue operators.
“The China market, while growing quickly, is still relatively immature and if Chinese visitors, who are often on their first overseas trip, go home and tell their friends and family they had a bad experience and Australia is not a good place to visit, the entire industry suffers for it.”
One problem identified by consumer protection authorities in Australia is that “If a tour group spends up big on one particular product in Sydney, when they get to the Gold Coast that product will have gone up in price”.
Ian Jarrett
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