Travel services need to be regulated to protect tourists

A girl sits on his father's back after watching performances in the Temple of Heaven, in Beijing, Feb 22, 2015. [Photo/IC]

A video that shows a tourist guide in Yunnan province scolding tourists on a coach for four minutes simply because they did not purchase many goods in the shops that provide kickbacks to her has been an online hit. The tourism authorities have responded that they will probe the incident and punish the guide and her agency if they are found responsible. Comments:

The guide, of course, deserves a penalty for her bad service and verbal abuse of the tourists under her care. However, there have already been numerous reports about guides forcing tourists to purchase goods. Tourists should stay alert and avoid joining organized trips that offer a price obviously lower than it should be.

Southern Metropolis Daily, May 3

There are two ways that tourism agencies that break the rules or act illegally will die out, namely being naturally eliminated by the market or being banned by the government. Some call for the former, but that might be a long, painful process, in which innocent tourists continue to suffer from bad services, have their vacations spoiled and their impressions of tourist sites ruined. The government needs to intervene and enforce the law strictly, so that illegal agencies won't damage the tourism market anymore.

Beijing Youth Daily, May 3

The central tourism authorities said they would launch a campaign to root out tourism agencies that offer bad services, but there is, as yet, no regulations covering the issue. Before lawmakers end this deficiency, it is advisable for the authorities to allow tourism practitioners to form a guild for self-regulation; when some tourism agencies do evil things, the society could intervene by blacklisting them or even expelling them from the profession. Legal tourism agencies and guides are victims, too and they will drive their bad colleagues out.

Beijing News, May 3