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Tougher monitoring over travel agencies organizing HK trips following fatal shopping dispute
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Travel agencies organizing trips to Hong Kong are now required to provide all the names of tour group members to HK authorities while tourists' contracts will also be checked more frequently in the wake of the fatal trip late last month, authorities said.
A HK tour guide and a Shenzhen tour escort have been charged with beating a mainland tourist to death over a shopping dispute outside a jewelry store in Kowloon.
If people are found participating in tour groups abnormally often, they will be investigated for suspicion of "shadow tour group members", a HK term referring to people who pretend to be tourists but serve as shills to lure others into shopping, said Cathy Chu, commissioner for tourism with the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau of HK, at the 2015 China International Travel Mart today in Kunming, Yunnan Province.
In the past, only the tour group name and number of tourists were submitted to tourism authorities in HK.
Chu said the contracts of tourists and travel agencies will be checked from time to time to determine whether "zero-or negative-fare tours" which lure tourists with free or low-price trips only to hoax them into buying overpriced goods are involved.
HK will report travel agencies in the mainland that break the law to China National Tourism Administration, she said.
HK officials will also step up patrols to crack down on luring tourists into shopping and tourists will be reminded to be vigilant on low-price tours.
HK has started the renovation project to turn a historical police station into a museum as a new scenic spot where people can see court, prison and police station in old time to attract more tourists from the mainland, she said.
HK tourism market has been stagnant in recent years after more mainland tourists turn to South Korea and Japan and the opening of the Disney Resort in Shanghai next year will probably worsen the situation, experts said.
The fatal tour incident also affected its tourism industry.
The number of mainland tourists to HK dropped 8.3 percent during the National Day holiday compared with the same period last year.
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