Travel agencies urged to assess risk

The Shanghai Municipal Tourism Administration is urging travel agencies to assess the risk of their tourism products to reduce the damage and injuries caused by potential safety hazards, an administration official said Monday on a local radio program.

Local travel agencies have conducted risk assessments on more than 200 tourism products to determine the nature and extent of the risks by analyzing the potential hazards to tourists, said Yang Jinsong, the head of the Shanghai Municipal Tourism Administration.

Yang urged travel agencies in the city to carry out preventive measures following a series of tourism-related accidents that occurred this year, including the death of a Shanghai tourist who was killed by a hippo in Kenya while trying to take a photo of the animal's young.

All of the travel agencies need to find qualified service providers that are capable of ensuring service quality and improving management, Yang said. All buses are required to install global positioning systems (GPS) and safety belts.

Tourists need to cooperate as well. "The reason why we have seen so many accidents overseas recently is because more and more people have chosen to travel to foreign countries," said Yang Yong, a business professor specialized in tourism at East China Normal University.

Tour guides play an important role in keeping tourists safe during trips to foreign countries as they are usually more familiar with the country and know if a place is safe for tourists, Yang said.

Yang also suggested that the government should publish updated information about tourist destinations, especially during natural disasters and other circumstances that are unsafe for tourists.

Yang believes that risks can be controlled through the joint efforts of the government, travel agencies and tourists. "After all, every trip involves some risk. Part of the attraction of travel is journeying into the unknown," he told the Global Times.