Tourist agencies seek to stamp out bad behavior
Print Edition
TOURIST agencies and local authorities are hoping that lectures given to tourists ahead of the May Day holiday will help reduce the unruly behavior for which the country’s travelers and sightseers have become notorious.
In recent years, Chinese tourists’ misdeeds, ranging from brawling on flights to defacing landmarks at home and abroad, have made headlines, sparking angry discussion over the disparity between their bulging wallets and their behavior.
In Wuhan, capital of Hubei Province, Wanda Xinhangxian International Travel Agency gave clients who paid for a group trip to Thailand during the holiday a lesson in etiquette.
“Don’t rush to take your luggage before the airplane stops. Don’t waste food on the buffet table. Don’t be noisy at scenic spots. Don’t point at Buddhist sculptures ...,” read a promotional leaflet.
The company’s Yao Hui said the lessons were required under a directive from provincial tourism authorities.
“Tour guides must repeat the basics, such as no littering and no scrawling on landmarks,” Yao said.
Hubei authorities are also watching incoming tourists as the province is popular for its natural wonders like the Three Gorges and Wudang Mountains.
The provincial tourism department has launched a campaign encouraging sightseers to send photos and videos of misbehaving tourists to its WeChat account, promising to name and shame anyone whose identities can be verified in the images.
A cleaner surnamed Lin at a scenic spot in Wuhan, said she awaits the influx of tourists with dread.
Lin complained that she is generally unable to take a break during an eight-hour holiday shift because of many toilet users’ bad habits.
“Some don’t even flush the toilet properly,” she said.
China rolled out a national tourism law in 2013. As well as regulating behavior, it covered wrongdoing by tour guides and business owners around tourism sites. In Shandong Province’s Qufu, the birthplace of Confucius, officials have promised that tour guides will be blacklisted for dodgy practices.
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