Hong Kong | Travel watchdog calls for end to forced shopping tours

The director of Hong Kong’s Travel Industry Council, a non-statutory industry watchdog, has said that mainland visitors to the HKSAR are still being forced to shop in the city, as part of the terms of what are known as “zero-fee tours.” He is calling for the agencies to put a halt to such tactics in order to preserve the positive image of Hong Kong tourism.

The tour groups in question do not charge to bring mainlanders from China to Hong Kong, but also don’t visit the city’s sights either. Instead, they head straight for retail shops and earn commission from sales.

Joseph Tung, the head of the Travel Industry Council, said that his organization has been prevented from inspecting the relevant tour agencies on the basis that it is a non-statutory body and cannot mandate inspections.

Many of the people who join such groups are elderly residents of the mainland, coming from non-urban areas in the northeast and southwest of China. Since they may not be informed about Hong Kong and its culture, disputes sometimes arise when they are forced to shop.

However, “most of the time the complainants could not even tell us the name of the agency or the tourist guide, which makes it really hard for us to follow up,” he said.

According to Hong Kong’s The Standard, he suggested that authorities in the city – such as police, immigration and customs officials – should step up their enforcement.

“We have reflected this to the national department many times, but they said if the agency is unknown, there is nothing they can do except to pass it to the Public Security Bureau,” added Tung.

He said his hope for improvement now lies with the upcoming government statutory body, the Travel Industry Authority.