Travel agency shut down over rip-off claims
Print Edition
A TRAVEL agency alleged to have ripped off visitors to Zhangjiajie in central China’s Hunan Province has been shut down and three people detained, local authorities said.
An initial investigation found that Zhangjiajie China Travel Agency had violated the law, details of which weren’t specified, according to provincial news portal rednet.cn.
The three people detained, whose identities weren’t disclosed, had been punished with 10-day detentions and fines of 500 yuan (US$75), officials said, without revealing the nature of their offenses.
An investigation into the incident is still underway, the website said, adding that there would be “further decisions” announced on Friday.
Local newspaper the Xiaoxiang Morning Post said it sent a reporter, posing as a tourist, to the city’s bus terminal on September 28 after receiving a tip-off that about 30 to 40 people would usually meet the buses, half of them harassing the tourists, the others pretending to come to their rescue and directing them to the travel agency where they were encouraged to buy tour packages.
The newspaper said its reporter paid 880 yuan for a one-day trip, but after it began he was told had to pay extra for activities that were supposed to be optional. If the group didn’t pay, the guide is alleged to have said, they would just walk all day and not be given a meal.
The reporter said he and his traveling companions eventually paid another 600 yuan each.
Liu Jun, who had alerted the newspaper, said the tours cost the travel agency about 150 yuan per person and that, on one occasion, four tourists were charged 18,000 yuan.
Meanwhile, according to Beijing Youth Daily, authorities in the city’s Changping District ordered 12 tourist stores to close on September 30 following violations such as giving kickbacks to tour guides.
And in Dali in southwest China’s Yunnan Province, many taxi drivers were found to be charging tourists more than twice the going rate during the holiday, according to China National Radio.
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