China cracks down on home-grown tourist 'vandals'

Chinese tourists who vandalise artefacts or public property at home can now be detained for up to 10 days under a tourism law which takes effect as China welcomes its National Day holidays this week.

Not only is it common to see graffiti at tourist sites like the Great Wall in China, it is also not uncommon to hear of Chinese tourists leaving their "mark" overseas

. Changzhou resident Zhao Genda, for example, scratched his name on a protected coastal rock in Taiwan in 2010, while Nanjing teenager Ding Jinhao did the same on a wall inside the 3,500-year- old Luxor Temple in Egypt earlier this year.

Besides "ugly" tourists, the first such law in China also takes aim at things like dishonest sales tactics - a move welcomed by those hoping it will help clean up China's messy tourism business. Decades in the making, the law was finally passed in April by China's State Council, which could no longer ignore rising complaints against the country's tourists and tourist sector.

Last year, Chinese tourists overtook Germans as the top spenders worldwide. Despite good intentions, the law has already drawn flak, from the very people that it aims to protect: tourists. Many are especially unhappy with a clause that bans tours with shopping stops - which has led to a jump in the prices of travel packages this holiday.

These have gone up by an average of about 30 per cent for outbound tours, going by a check by Beijing News.

A six-day tour to Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand costing 4,600 yuan (S$943) last month has gone up by 32 per cent to 6,090 yuan this month.

"Every year, Oct 1, (we) go travelling. The new tourism law has made us unable to travel," said a netizen named Eva, who complained about costlier tours on her microblog account.

The ban hopes to weed out tours that tout cheap fees but cost much more. Such are common in China and make consumers pay extra costs, like entrance fees to added sites of interest, or they stop for lengthy periods at shops.

Agencies can offer these packages cheaply as they are "subsidised" by kickbacks from shops. Now that such practices have been outlawed - violators face having licences revoked and being fined up to 300,000 yuan - travel agencies have raised their prices. Some say this is not a bad thing.

"Hidden costs have become transparent," Mr Du Bin, head of the China Tourism Academy, told Xinhua. "The tourism law's implementation will make tour prices more transparent and enable tourists to understand well the break-down of costs."

But some question whether agencies have seized the chance to jack up prices arbitrarily. The new law also targets tourist sites that raise fees for no good reason, mandating that they give half a year's notice before they raise fees and conduct a public hearing. In recent years, many tourist spots in China have raised ticket prices to cash in on the country's growing tourism market, which saw 2.96 billion inbound trips and about 83 million outbound ones last year. This means each of China's 1.3 billion people took two to three trips on average.

Fenghuang ancient town, a popular draw in central Hunan, was widely criticised after officials started in April to charge visitors an entry fee, and a relatively costly fee, too, at 148 yuan. While observers agree the law is a move in the right direction, curbs like those on misbehaving tourists may not be easy to enforce. Most are waiting to see how the rules will be implemented. "In China, even when there is a law, no one obeys it," said Hong Kong art director Gary Cheng, 27.

Still, he welcomed the move and hoped it would put pressure on mainland visitors to Hong Kong to behave well. He told The Straits Times: "It's sad though that they have to introduce a law. It's just a matter of civic consciousness and education."

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