Hong Kong based travel agencies have been ordered to provide authorities with the names of all Chinese tour group members following high pressure tactics which led to the death of a tourist last month.
Names will be monitored for any who travel ‘abnormally often,’ said Cathy Chu, commissioner for tourism at the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau of Hong Kong.
Tour groups sometimes include ‘shadow tour group members’ which coax genuine tourists to spend more money on shopping trips.
A tourist died after being beaten while trying to stop an altercation between a tourist an tour organizers outside a jewellery store in Hong Kong.
Travel agencies in mainland China that break rules will be reported to the China National Tourism Administration, Chu said.
Such ‘zero fare’ tours are a popular tactic by agents to lure tourists with low coast or even free trips but are coerce into buying overpriced goods.
