News

Travel industry promises to clean up its act

By Michelle Fei and Ming Yeung (HK Edition)
Updated: 2010-07-17 06:26

The video posted on the Internet of a Hong Kong tour guide berating her mainland tour group for being "tight-fisted" about making purchases at a jewelry shop in March is sending shock waves in and outside the city.

The travel company that conducted the tour, Golden Win International Travel Services, issued a statement through its deputy manager Chui Kam-ming, saying the abusive tour guide identified as "Jane" was a freelancer hired by the company during the peak season.

Chui expressed what he termed "deep regret" over the incident, while at the same time declaring the company will never hire that tour guide again. He said the company will accommodate the tourists targeted in the outburst free of charge.

Chui claimed the company had periodically inspected the conduct of tour guides to ensure that they abide by the regulations of the Travel Industry Council (TIC). "We are preparing a report to the TIC and we welcome other penalties that may be imposed on the guide," Chui said.

Tse Pak-kung, chairman of the Hong Kong General Union of Tour Guides who receive mainland groups, denounced what he called "the intolerable behavior" towards the travelers. "It was an individual case. The concerned guide completely violated the codes of conduct of the TIC," he noted. "Any professional guide would not have said something unethical like that."

Philip Yung, commissioner for Tourism, confirmed that the guide's license had been revoked. In his latest apology, Yung said, "Both the government and the TIC have been doing our utmost to make sure that the travel trade is operating effectively and responsibly towards the interest of the tourists. There has been a serious incident that may affect the reputation of Hong Kong as a tourist destination."

He said the TIC has set up a task force to look at the longer-term improvement measures, and was confident that there would be visible improvement on implementation of the measures through "the hard work of the TIC and the support of the government".

The Chairman of the TIC, Michael Wu, confirmed that the TIC had contacted relevant parties to gather more information on the incident. "The TIC will not tolerate incidents like this one, because it seriously affects Hong Kong's reputation," he said. He added that apart from penalizing the guide, the TIC would continue to remind tour guides to provide the best services to the visitors.

Golden Win International has been the target of complaints from mainland tourists in the past for forced purchasing. Four mainland visitors from Henan province claimed that their return tickets were cancelled by Golden Win because they had refused to make purchases at designated shops on their tour.

Meanwhile, other travel-related problems among mainland and Hong Kong travel services have been percolating through news cycles. A maximum of 1000 yuan in additional fees has been levied by certain mainland travel agencies that organize group travel to Hong Kong among so-called "special age groups" of mainlanders aged below 21 or above 55, on grounds that they have little purchasing power. The extra fee, according to the mainland agencies, was imposed by Hong Kong agencies, local media reported on Friday.

Mainlanders posted their comments on the Internet after watching the video of the incident. Many said inappropriate behavior among travel guides is a universal problem. Others commented that the Hong Kong travel industry needs urgent tighter regulation.

China Daily

(HK Edition 07/17/2010 page1)