Experts attending a forum on Wednesday expect more detailed measures to protect the interests of both tourists and tour guides.
As the nation's top tourism regulator pilots a freelance tour guide program this month, tourists will be able to book services from freelance tour guides via an online platforms, according to Beijing Times reported on Tuesday.
This is part of efforts made by the National Tourism Administration to promote Internet plus tourism strategy and tap more job opportunities for tour guides.
The first batch of regions for the pilot is Shanghai, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Jilin, Hunan, Hainan, Sichuan, and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
Dai Bin, head of China Tourism Academy, suggesting that a national supervision platform is in need to verify tour guide certification and to deal with possible disputes that might occur, such as offering shopping trips that many tourists complained about.
"The new pilot program is expected to better connect tourists seeking personalized services and freelancers seeking job opportunities. The key thing is to figure out how to better enhance supervision," Dai said.
On the tour guides side, Zhu Haifeng, head of Ceyou Technology, a company that offers mobile app development service for tourism, expects more measures to better ensure the interests of freelancers when many of them in China are struggling with their wages and social security.
"Online services provide more possibilities for low-paid part-time tour guides," Zhu said.
"As the new pilot program rolls out, we hope that more institutions could join and help them become eligible to benefit from standard social insurance scheme."
