Travel agencies that offer the unreasonably cheap trips will face a temporary suspension of business and fines. But travelers who sign misleading tourism contracts will also receive punishment instead of compensation, the authority said.

    CHINESE authorities are stepping up a crackdown on dirt-cheap tours, vowing to punish tourists who knowingly sign “fake contracts” with travel agencies for discount holidays.

    The decision comes after the death of a mainland tourist following an alleged attack over a shopping row in Hong Kong last week.

    The National Tourism Administration said in an online notice Sunday that mainland tourists may be held legally liable.

    “The administration is studying the relevant measures to deal with it,” the notice said.

    Some travel agencies make use of extremely low-priced trips to attract tourists and then make profits from the tourists by forcing them to buy goods at designated places — a practice that has been banned under a guideline issued by the authority in late September.

    The new practice is that the agencies sometimes reach a deal with tourists to sign contracts that appear to comply with government bans on unreasonably cheap tours. The travelers know the itinerary will not be as stated in the contract.

    When the price of a tourism product is 30 percent lower than a local government guide price, it is considered an “unreasonably cheap” trip, according to government guidelines. The guidelines state that it’s a violation of the law and disrupts the market.

    Travel agencies that offer the unreasonably cheap trips will face a temporary suspension of business and fines, the guideline added.

    Tourists are urged to oppose the agencies’ improper behavior, but travelers who sign misleading tourism contracts will also receive punishment instead of compensation, the authority said.

    In cases of “fake contracts,” tourists are encouraged to report, not to sign the contract, it said, suggesting travelers read tour plans carefully.

    In addition, the authority is studying specific punishments for tourists who do not behave well during a tour.

    Concerns over excessively cheap tours to Hong Kong were raised again last week when Miao Chunqi, a 54-year-old man from Heilongjiang Province, died after he was allegedly beaten while trying to mediate a dispute between another tourist and their tour leader.

    Hong Kong’s tourism watchdog is investigating whether the travel agency charged excessively low fees.

    Hong Kong travel industry representatives said some travel agents were known to offer very cheap packages to attract customers, relying on commissions from sales during shopping stops to make money.

    Some cheap tours organized by mainland agencies also hired “shadow tour members” to persuade other visitors to spend more on the shopping trips.

    The administration’s move sparked outrage from mainlanders online, who criticized the watchdog for targeting the wrong people.

    “It’s like penalizing consumers for buying fakes instead of prosecuting the platforms selling the fakes,” one said on Weibo.

    “What is the reason for that? How can consumers know what is a reasonable price?”

    However, Wei Xiao’an, secretary-general of the China Tourism Leisure Association, said tourists should take some responsibility for their actions on a trip, especially when they take advantage of the low-priced trips.

    Travelers will not enjoy better services if they buy a lower-price product, Wei said, suggesting the tourism authority not spend more time handling such complaints.

    Hong Kong tourism sector lawmaker Yiu Si-wing applauded the speedy response to the tourist’s death, and said the council planned to release a guide on appropriate price ranges for tours to Hong Kong. “There will be different levels of pricing based on things like what star rating their hotel has,” Wu said. “There is no standard in the market. We hope to issue one before the Lunar New Year.”

    The council would also discuss how the guidelines would fit in with competition laws to avoid price fixing.

    But Yiu also said in tragedies like last week, the bigger problem lies with mainland tour agencies. Individuals in Shenzhen pretend to represent respectable tour agencies and hand out leaflets to travelers, asking them to join problematic tours. Although tourists filed complaints against them, the individuals cannot be traced, he said.

    Another difficulty in prosecuting violators is the complexity of tour arrangements. Agencies from different parts of the country send tourists to Shenzhen before they come to Hong Kong, and tourists do not know who to complain to about problems.

    A legal adviser for a mainland travel company said the Hong Kong government should impose tougher punishments to eradicate these kinds of tours.

    “A combination of legislation, implementation and industry discipline is needed to solve the problem,” she said.

    Mainland tourism authorities banned “free” tours in 2013, and prohibited agencies from luring customers through low-cost trips on which people are later forced to shop.

    Hong Kong Inbound Tour Operators Association chairman Ricky Tse Kam-ting welcomed the administration’s move, saying consumers and vendors had to take some responsibility.

    But lawmaker James Tien Pei-chun, who chairs the Legislative Council’s economic development panel, said the only way to curb the practice was to introduce some form of legislation.

    “If Hong Kong had a law and the mainland had a law … making [forced shopping] a crime … tour agencies wouldn’t do it, tour operators wouldn’t do it and tour leaders wouldn’t do it,” Tien said.(SD-Agencies)