Our country currently maintains a "ban on group tours" in China, and only free travel is allowed. However, this newspaper has received complaints that some domestic travel agencies are openly selling Chinese tour group itineraries, but they add words such as "cultural visit" and "free group tour" in the title to circumvent the ban on group tours and skirt the edges of regulations. Once a consumer dispute occurs, there may be no way to seek compensation.
In response to the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic in 2020, my country banned travel agencies from sending groups to China. The ban was originally scheduled to be lifted in 2024. However, because Chinese officials banned Chinese tour groups and independent travelers from coming to Taiwan, Taiwan counterattacked and continued to ban group travel, and only independent travelers can travel to China.
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In the first eight months of this year, nearly 2.5 million people visited
According to statistics from the Tourism Administration of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, as of August this year, the number of Chinese people traveling abroad reached 14,532,351, of which 17.1 were traveled to China. 1%, up to 2.49251 million people, second only to Japan, which is the country with the second largest number of overseas destinations for Chinese people.
This newspaper received complaints from readers that a travel agency is selling itineraries to China on its official website, listing many well-known Chinese attractions such as Jiuzhaigou, Xinjiang, Zhangjiajie, the Yangtze River, etc., and providing daily itinerary summaries, which are similar to ordinary group travel itineraries. They just add "cultural visit" to the title, or package them with names such as "Group Free Travel", but in fact they are sending company personnel to lead group tours, traveling on the edge of the law. If the itinerary is not arranged properly, it may also cause safety risks.
It is common for relatives and friends to fight against each other and merge into groups.
Anonymous industry insiders said that the more common method now is for associations, community and village heads, corporate agencies, relatives and friends to organize tour groups on their own, and then ask travel agencies to assist in handling it. For example, this year's overturning accident in Gansu Province was caused by relatives and friends organizing the tour themselves.
Another way is for travel agencies to let individual travelers depart from Taiwan individually, pretend to be traveling independently, and then gather into a group tour after arriving in China.
Xu Jinrui, chairman of the Cross-Strait Travel Association, analyzed that if a travel agency provides relevant travel information for tourists' reference on the official website and there is no departure date above, it may be to provide tourist reference materials, or it may be within the normal business scope of the travel agency; if the public finds that the official website provides dates and registration, they can report it to the Tourism Administration.
The reported violation is true and the maximum fine is 50,000 yuan
Huang Heting, deputy director of the Tourism Administration of the Ministry of Transport, said that currently, the tourism industry is still prohibited from openly soliciting unspecified tourists to organize groups to travel to China, but travel agencies can handle visiting groups, inspection groups, self-organized groups by the public, or book air tickets and accommodation on their behalf. If a visiting group to China has a Chinese inviting organization, has a specific purpose of visiting, arranges a specific location for the visit, and the visiting members have certain conditions and qualifications, it is not within the scope of suspending the travel industry's travel business to China. We call on the industry to abide by the regulations and not solicit tourists in violation of regulations to avoid causing subsequent travel disputes.
Huang Heting pointed out that if the tourism industry illegally recruits groups to travel to China, and if the public reports it is true, it will be a violation of the "Travel Industry Management Rules" and must be improved within a time limit, or a fine of not less than 10,000 yuan but not more than 50,000 yuan will be imposed.
