CNTA cracking down on unethical practices
Contributors are not employed, compensated or governed by TD, opinions and statements are from the contributor directly
She told delegates participating in the PATA-Nielsen China (PRC) Outbound intelligence workshop at PATA Travel Mart 2007 yesterday that in working together with destinations such as Hong Kong, the CNTA was already cracking down on zero-cost tours.
At home, CNTA has set up a web page for consumers to register their complaints. Nearly 900 complaints about outbound tours were logged in 2006 (78% more than 2005), and from January-June this year, Chinese travellers had logged 466 complaints.
Complaints pertained to shopping tours, quality standards, hidden costs, accommodation standards, shortcuts in tour programmes, and surcharges for younger or older tour members (those perceived to have less purchasing power for arranged shopping tours).
“Given the growth in the number of outbound trips taken by Chinese travellers the number of complaints seems very small,” said Chang. “However, according to Chinese culture, people do not like to complain unless it is a big deal to them.”
To help reduce the number of complaints, CNTA has formulated an official contract template to guide Chinese citizens in their dealings with tour operators.
CNTA has also published an official price guide for 17 common outbound tour routes to help travellers identify reasonable all-inclusive value.
Comments are closed.