While the Communist Party of China enshrined in an amendment to the Party Constitution “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era” and Secretary General Xi declared the intention of China to move to “Centre Stage” during the 19th National Party Congress, CNTA was frying smaller fish.

The China National Tourism Administration published new rules for tour guides, replacing a series of regulations dating back to 2001. According to the updated rules, guides are prohibited from steering their clients to “illegal or immoral activities such as gambling, drugs or sex”, according to the China Daily.

Guides are also prohibited from forcing clients to shop at specific businesses during a tour or charging extra money for unsolicited services or even restricting a tourists’ freedom and using physical force. Punishment for such misbehaviour can go up to 20,000 RMB (about 3,000 US$) plus a revocation of the guiding license.

No specific punishment is defined for the practice, regularly seen in China but also in outbound destinations with a deficit in Chinese-speaking guides, of leaving a group in the middle of a tour because the guide is offered a more lucrative group.

The new regulations will take effect on Jan 1, 2018, so Chinese package-tourists looking for illegal or immoral activities should hurry up, or face the consequences in the new year.

P.S. (In case you are too young to understand the pun, follow this link)

COTRI Team

Image: Oporto 2017 by Sergio Fabara Muñoz, Source: Flickr, Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)