China's tourism authorities plan to encourage "competent travelers" to voluntarily supervise tour groups to prevent Chinese tourists from behaving poorly, according to etiquette guidelines issued Tuesday.
"Large-scale" outbound tour groups are encouraged to select "highly competent travelers" to help tour guides supervise the groups' behavior, according to the guidelines released by the China National Tourism Administration (NTA). But the selection standards, process and supervision regarding "highly competent" travelers have not yet been detailed.
The NTA stressed that 10 provincial-level regions including Beijing and Shanghai that are the source of many Chinese tourists will be the major targets of the push for "civilized travel."
However, the measure may not be that effective in curbing bad behavior as the number of Chinese tourists taking trips by person is now larger than those taking trips with tour groups, warned Liu Simin, deputy secretary-general of the Beijing Tourism Society.
"Besides, as it is not and cannot be a mandatory measure, travelers may not follow the supervisors' etiquette advice," Liu Deqian, a tourism expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.
Private outbound tours constituted over 70 percent of trips overseas in 2014, a year in which more than 100 million Chinese traveled abroad, news portal xinmin.cn reported.
The announcement of the guidelines comes amid growing concern about the shoddy manners of Chinese tourists both at home and abroad.
It also encourages ordinary people to take photos and videos of poorly-behaved tourists and then expose them on social networks and via the media, creating an atmosphere in which denouncing uncivilized behavior becomes normal.
According to NTA regulations that came into force on April 6, tourists can be "blacklisted" for offences including disrespecting local customs, vandalizing historical exhibits or engaging in gambling.
A Thai AirAsia flight bound for Nanjing, Jiangsu Province was forced to return to Bangkok, Thailand after a female Chinese passenger threw scalding hot water and instant noodles at a flight attendant in December 2014.
A 15-year-old Chinese boy's handwriting was found scratched into a 3,500-year-old relic in Egypt in 2013, which triggered international public outrage.
