Southwest China's Yunnan Province will ban designated shops for tourists in an effort to crack down on forced shopping at its tourist attractions, according to measures on the management of the province's tourism market released on Monday.
The measures, dubbed "the strictest ever" tourism management measures in Yunnan by Chinese media, will come into force on April 15. The document aims at achieving "fundamental improvement" in the order of Yunnan's tourism market within a year.
Yunnan's tourism management authorities hold a press conference to release measures on the management of the province's tourism market in Kunming, Yunnan Province in southwest China on March 27, 2017. /Yunnan.cn Photo
According to the measures, the widespread practice of forcing tourists to buy products at designated shops will be prohibited and all tourist shopping enterprises will be placed under unified supervision and regulation as retailers of ordinary commodities.
The province has also vowed to ban the launch, selling and operation of "unreasonably low-price tour" products and strengthen the regulation of travel agencies through a blacklist system.
Yunnan will build a unified information platform for the management of tour guides to improve their services. Besides, relevant enterprises are required to sign labor contracts with their tour guides and protect their lawful interests with a reasonable salary system.
Yunnan, renowned for its diverse cultures of ethnic minorities and picturesque scenic spots such as Lijiang, Dali, Shangri-La, Xishuangbanna, Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, the Stone Forest, Lugu Lake and Dianchi Lake, is also a province with notorious irregularities in its tourism industry, leading to loud complaints from tourists and even clashes between tourists and tour guides from time to time.
Lugu Lake in Lijiang, Yunnan Province in southwest China. /CFP Photo
Many tourists complain that they were induced to join unreasonably cheap tour groups and later strong-armed by tour guides into purchasing expensive jewelry, cosmetics, electronics and other specialties or souvenirs at designated shops in Yunnan. It is reported that tour guides, many of whom are part-time employees with low salaries, get kickbacks from the shops as their main source of income.
Chen Shun, vice governor of Yunnan Province, became a victim of forced shopping in early 2017. After joining a tour group as a civilian, he and other travelers were taken to a tourist shop, where they were told not to leave without buying up to a certain value of goods.
Chen shared his story at a provincial government meeting on February 10. "If these shops are so aggressive, why can't they be closed?" Yunnan Governor Ruan Chengfa asked. "There must be someone behind them."
At a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Yunnan Provincial Communist Party of China (CPC) Committee on February 19, Yunnan's CPC Committee chief Chen Hao pledged to rectify the province's tourism market and improve the quality of tourism, even if at the expense of the growth of tourist numbers and tourism revenue.
China National Tourism Administration launched a nationwide crackdown on "unreasonably low-price tour" last October.
In 2016, Yunnan welcomed some 431 million tourists, with more than six million coming from abroad, a steady increase of 5.31 percent from the previous year. This year, the province was hoping to boost this figure by 8 percent and host some 6.5 million foreign travelers.
