Vietnam trip leaves sour taste

More tourists visiting different countries will mean more jobs, more investment, more infrastructure and more development.[Photo/Xinhua]

Thanks to their deepening pockets, Chinese tourists are welcome across the world. Quite a few countries have made their visa procedures easier to lure this ever-growing group that spent $200 billion overseas last year.

It is not all smooth sailing, though.

Media reports say early this week a group of Chinese tourists in Nha Trang, central Vietnam, were harassed, some even assaulted, at the airport when they refused to pay a "routine" 10-yuan ($1.55) "tip" to Vietnamese officers before boarding. According to the Chinese tourists, the Vietnamese officers tried to "confiscate" their passports and threatened them with Tasers when they refused to pay them.

Overcharging has long been the bane of some countries' tourism industries, Vietnam being one of them. But tips for airport officers doing their duty, that's too much.

Chinese consulate officials have reportedly asked the Chinese tourists to keep any evidence they have and are waiting for a formal response from their Vietnamese counterparts.

The practice of tips-on-demand, if true, will tarnish Vietnam's image as a hospitable tourist destination. The country received more than 2 million Chinese tourists last year, its largest source of foreign visitors.

But Chinese tourists have reportedly tipped custom officers in other countries, too, as advised by their tour guides, so as to save trouble or make their entries and exits easier. Since most have complied, the unreasonable demand seems to have become a formality in some places.

More than 120 million Chinese tourists travel around the world each year. Had all of them refused to comply with the illegal demands and reported them to the authorities, both at home and their destination countries, the practice would not have survived.

Chinese tourists can help change the world as law-abiding citizens, but the Vietnamese authorities also have some work to do.