TIC cleans up zero-fare tours

The Travel Industry Council (TIC) has come up with 10 measures to tackle Hong Kong’s problem with zero-fare tours, in light of several incidents of forced shopping for mainland Chinese tour groups. Michael Wu, convenor of the TIC task force on business models and regulatory measures for mainland China inbound tours, said the government had agreed to the proposal and the TIC was now finetuning the directives.

The measures set up a penalty-point system for travel agencies and tour guides to deter forced shopping. Demerits of five points or multiples of five, depending on the severity of the violation, will be meted out to recalcitrant agencies and guides. The TIC can suspend a guide’s licence for three months should the latter accumulate 30 demerit points within two years. A second offence brings about a year-long suspension while for the third strike, the offender’s licence will be revoked.

All complaints will be passed to the TIC Compliance Committee for judgment. The directives will also be incorporated in employment contracts. The task force has likewise re-commended that tour guides be given basic salaries so they would not be relying solely on commissions. It said operators should negotiate salaries with guides plus a tour fee of around HK$25  (US$3.22) per tourist per day. Another proposal was for a “one-tour, one-guide” policy to prevent agents from using different guides who may be more adept at persuading tourists to shop.

Wu is bracing himself for some dissent in the trade but said: “The task force hopes the industry will put the overall development of Hong Kong’s tourism industry above everything else and rally together to make the industry a better regulated and healthier environment.”

TIC executive director Joseph Tung said the Council intended to implement the new measures within the next few months. C K Kai, general manager of Beng Seng Travel, said: “It is good to have all regulations laid out officially because travel agents in Hong Kong are very smart and have their way of finding loopholes and reacting accordingly.”

Sourced=ttgasia