According to the Yunnan Provincial Public Security Department, a tourism police force was established in seven cities in Yunnan in 2016, including Kunming, Dali and Lijiang. The total headcount of the Yunnan tourism police is 150, with 85 police on duty now.
During the Golden Week in 2017 Spring Festival, a total of 22.9662 million tourists visited Yunnan, a 65.28% increase year-on-year. The total tourism revenue was 13.553 billion yuan (U.S.$1.97 billion) during the week, a 70.6% increase year-on-year. However, the public’s attention was attracted by crimes targeting tourists in Lijiang and Dali. Therefore, the biggest concern for the local government is to develop tourism in a healthy way.
Cao Weidong, an official from the Yunnan Provincial Public Security Department, said that they have already established seven tourism police teams in cities including Kunming, Dali, Lijiang, Xishuangbanna, Diqing, Tengchong and Ruili. They have cracked down on crimes related with tourists in Dali, Xishuangbanna and Lijiang.
The Dali Prefectural Tourism Police Detachment was established in February 2016. In 2016, it received 60 tourism complaints and resolved all of them. On June 29, 2016, after two months of investigation, the Detachment cracked down on Gao’s fraud group and arrested 10 suspects. Since October 2015, the fraud group has defrauded more than 800 tourists and made an illegal turnover of more than 1.16 million yuan (US$168,000).
In Xishuangbanna, the local tourism police detachment has resolved 131 cases related with tourism complaints. A total of 52 people were in administrative detention, one person received administrative warning and one received administrative fine in 45 tourism public security cases. A total of 41 people were placed in criminal detention in eight tourism criminal cases.
In Lijiang, a special security force was organized to monitor public security in hotels. Meanwhile, the local tourism police detachment was established to crack down on crimes in the tourism market.
