A recent report released by China Consumers' Association, or CCA, suggests that several serious problems exist in China's domestic tourism market that may harm tourists' legitimate rights and interests.
Not the best value for money
The report comes following an investigation on 96 different tourism routes across the country from September to October.
Results show that serious problems have been found in 74 percent of those tourism routes, and the current tourism services are still not quite satisfactory.
Vice-director in charge of commodity and service supervision at the CCA Pi Xiaolin says those problems mainly exist in 6 aspects including catering, accommodation, transportation, recreation, shopping and tour guides.
"We've found that a quarter of the tourist group meals are inconsistent with the contract, and over 30 percent of the meals are not sanitary enough. The environment of accommodation also needs further improvement. As for transportation, we've discovered that many overloaded vehicles have been applied, which is against the rules."
He adds that restrooms are often difficult to find in some of the overcrowded scenic spots with unacceptable environments or unsafe facilities.
Mandatory shopping and tour guides without proper qualifications are also important issues.
Some tour guides even randomly change the routes and force tourists to go shopping.
The tourism market in China has seen tremendous growth for the past decade.
Last year, the tourism market in China saw some 3.6 billion tourist trips, bringing an income of over 3 trillion yuan, or some 477 billion U.S. dollars.
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