Yunnan to clean up tourism industry

Yunnan has been a popular destination for tourists both from China and abroad.[Photo/Xinhua]

Yunnan province will introduce 22 measures to clean up the local tourism industry, the provincial tourism administrative authority said on Monday.

The measures, which will come into effect on April 15, include forbidding forced shopping and overly cheap tours, punishing fraud targeted at tourists, and strengthening regulation of tour guides via an online information and evaluation system.

Yu Fan, director of the Yunnan Tourism Development Commission, said the measures aim to eradicate the deep-rooted problems within the tourism industry.

Yunnan has been a popular destination for tourists both from China and abroad. However, in recent years, numerous incidents of tourists being swindled, abused, beaten or forced by tour guides to purchase overpriced commodities at designated stores have been reported by the media.

In August, several provincial authorities formed a task force and conducted inspections in cities known to be tourism hot spots, including Kunming, Dali and Lijiang.

The provincial government also released regulations aimed at improving the tourism industry, but they were largely ineffective.