CRI听力:Beijing Starts Investigation of Illegal Tour Guide's Swearing at Tourists

The video has gone viral. It shows a tour guide swearing at a tourist who asked why his group did not stop at a famous tourism resort.

It was later found out that the video was shot on the third day of the spring festival holiday in Beijing's Changping District, where the Ming Tombs are located.

The tourists were taken on an illegal "one-day Beijing trip" that often involves more shopping than sightseeing.

So far, no direct reports from tourists involved in the incident have been received, which makes the investigation difficult for the authorities.

Despite this, the head of the Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development, Song Yu, says action will be taken immediately to investigate the incident.

"We have dispatched a special administrator to investigate the issue after seeing it online. It brings us some trouble as there were no direct reports to us. Next step, we are trying to find this illegal tour guide through reports from the public. He belongs to the kind of black sheep tour operators who have an extreme bad effect on Beijing's tourism."

Analysts say Beijing's tourism industry is in urgent need for streamlining. One of the obvious issues is the "one-day Beijing trip" which often involves the tour guide forcing the tourists to make purchases, and can sometimes lead to verbal or physical assaults.

Song Yu says the Beijing authorities are planning to offer rewards for information on illegal tour guides.

"The Ming Tombs resort used to be one of the most famous tourism destinations for Beijing's one-day trips. However, its fame has been badly damaged by illegal tour guides. We sent out over 20 thousand people to stop these illegal activities last year but failed to eradicate them. We will spare no effort to solve this problem this year. Once we verified the deeds of one illegal tour guide, he will be put on the blacklist which means he will be banned from occupying jobs related to tourism. "

In analyzing the issue, experts say the reasons behind the persistent existence of illegal tour guides are complex.

Along with the lack of supervision by the authorities, inappropriate relationships between travel agencies and tour guides in China are also cited as part of the problem.

These tour guides have neither basic salary nor much insurance and their incomes rely solely on spending by tourists.

Experts also call for the public to choose legal travel agencies and not believe those zero fee tourism services.

For CRI, this is Niu Honglin.