Uncouth tourists risk penalties
Print Edition
For five successive days since Wednesday, Xinwen Lianbo, a flagship news program on China Central Television, has aired educational clips aimed at promoting polite tourist behavior.
The unusual move by Xinwen Lianbo, usually dedicated to political news and major events, is one of many indications of the country’s efforts to reverse unfavorable stereotypes of Chinese tourists.
Guidelines mandating good manners will soon be included into tourist contracts with travel agents and unruly holidaymakers will risk penalties, according to the National Tourism Agency.
Starting from October 1, the country’s first tourism law will be fully implemented, making it legally binding for tourists to behave well and respect local customs and traditions.
China ranks the third biggest outbound tourist market and is the largest source of international tourism spending. Chinese travellers spent a record US$102 billion overseas in 2012, according to a report by the United Nations World Tourism Organization.
However, the growing number of outbound visitors from the world’s second largest economy has so far been a mixed blessing for the world. While countries welcome their penchant for spending, they have also been unnerved by their obnoxious behavior.
Spitting in the street, talking noisily in restaurants and fighting for space to take pictures, such uncivilized behavior has damaged China’s age-old image as a “country of etiquette”.
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