Call for better services for tourists
Print Edition
SHANGHAI’S tourism authorities plan to include bilingual services such as tour booking and souvenir sales at the city’s tourist information centers, most of which only offer free maps and tourism information at present.
The city has more than 40 tourist information and service centers at airports, railway stations, hotels, tourist attractions and shopping plazas. They offer free multilingual maps and information on scenic spots, shopping, restaurants and tours.
“We have learned that there is big demand for such new services from both domestic and foreign tourists, and we plan to introduce tour packages ranging from one day to several days operated by licensed travel agencies at tourist information centers,” Zhang Qi, deputy director of the Shanghai Tourism Administration, told Shanghai Daily.
“It will satisfy the demands of foreign independent tourists and curb tours operated by unlicensed travel agencies,” he said.
Ma Chi, a political adviser from the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, suggested the tourist information centers expand their function.
“In big tourist cities overseas, information centers are easy to find and tourists are able to get everything there from booking hotels to buying subway tickets, railway tickets and scenic spot admission,” Ma said.
“Some information centers in Shanghai such as the Wukang Road tourist information center in Xuhui District provide very good help to tourists, but more are far from satisfactory,” he said.
“Their functions are few, and staff are not enthusiastic,” said Ma. At the Pudong and Hongqiao airports, tourists can only get simple traffic maps and details of tourist attractions at tourist information service centers there.
Because tourist centers in the city are managed by tourism authorities, railway, airport and bus operators, hotels and scenic spots, there is no unified logo and uniform, Ma said.
A tourist center in Hongqiao Railway Station is run by a travel agency and it is very commercial, while the Oriental Pearl TV Tower has two centers operated by different parties, said Ma.
In addition, the siting of such centers in the city is not reasonable, he said. On the Nanjing Road E. pedestrian mall, only one center provides information services with the rest selling beverages and other products, and there is not even one such center on Huaihai Road M., Ma said.
He suggested improvements because “visitor centers represent the window and name card of a city.”
Unified and standard “visitor service centers” providing one-stop services to tourists should be set up at airports, railway stations, piers, star hotels and areas with large number of tourists, Ma said.
“Their services should include tour information, ticketing of scenic spots, performances, subway, buses and even Wi-Fi device rental and car rental,” he said. “Moreover, staff at tourist centers should speak major foreign languages and wear unified uniforms.”
In 2016, Shanghai received 8.5 million tourists, up 6 percent from a year earlier.
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