What is the effect of the pilot work of free practice of tour guides?

Free practice, tour guides have mixed feelings.

"Now many people in the society don't understand or even scold tour guides, but how many people have really paid attention to the survival and working conditions of our tour guides? Most of our tour guides have no fixed income, and few travel agencies give us insurance. " Li Jing, a Tianjin tour guide, told the reporter that the tour guide hopes that tourists will be happy and be a good tour guide popular with tourists. Who wants to be a "shopping guide"? "To tell the truth, all tour groups are' bought' by us from travel agencies. Tourists don't have to spend extra money, and the tour guides themselves have to post money, so that even the basic living expenses can't be earned. "

"Black tour guide", forced shopping, dumping customers ... In recent years, tourists feel "very hurt" in the face of various problems with group tours. Nowadays, tourists can already book standard "products" such as air tickets, scenic spots tickets and hotel catering through the Internet. If you can book the tour guide service independently through the professional platform, visitors can get a better and more intimate travel experience.

At present, the free practice of tour guides has been liberalized, and the practice channels of tour guides have been designated by a single travel agency and transformed into multiple choices such as travel agencies, Internet platforms and other tourism service agencies. Visitors can choose their own tour guides according to the network evaluation and personalized needs, and pay through the third-party payment platform.

The reporter's investigation found that among the vast majority of the tour guides interviewed, free practice is a new way and channel recognized by tour guides. The data shows that 8 1% tour guides are willing to participate in free practice, and 46% of them are very willing to participate in free practice; 15% tour guides have a general attitude towards the pilot work, and 4% tour guides are unwilling to participate in the free practice of tour guides.

At present, tour guides in China are divided into contracted tour guides and social tour guides. The former is managed by travel agencies, with basic salary and insurance, and labor rights and interests are relatively guaranteed; The latter is a part-time job with no fixed income, no social insurance and poor job stability. According to the data provided by the National Tourism Administration, up to now, the number of qualified tour guides in China is 950,000, of which the number of social tour guides accounts for about 70% of the total number of tour guides in China.

Peng Zhikai, director of the supervision and management department of the National Tourism Administration, believes that opening up the free practice of tour guides can directly increase the income of tour guides. Tour guides can clearly mark the price and charge fees, and set up their own boutique routes to provide services, and establish a reputation and quality service experience for tourists with services and content. "With word-of-mouth and service experience, tourists will be willing to pay the bill, which will help improve the social status of tour guides." Peng Zhikai said.

"With the liberalization of the free practice of tour guides, the previous chaos such as zero tour fees and forced shopping will gradually disappear." Meng, a Zhejiang tour guide, said that due to the establishment of the booking platform for tour guide services, visitors can see the quality of tour guide services at a glance. Excellent tour guides will stand out, and those who have one quality problem or another in tour guide service will eventually be eliminated.

But tour guides are generally concerned about: how to calculate the income after freelance practice? How to handle tourists' claims and complaints? How to buy liability insurance? These three issues have become the focus of the tour guide group.

Zhan Haiyang, a tour guide in Hainan, believes that it is particularly important to clarify the fees for free practice of tour guides and improve the appeal mechanism and procedures. The notice requires that tour guides who participate in free practice should be insured with the liability insurance for free practice of tour guides, and the liability limit for each accident should not be less than 500,000 yuan. "Who should pay this fee? How to pay? Since the number and number of tour guides in the coming year are unknown, if the premium is borne by the tour guide, the income of the tour guide cannot cover the premium, which will affect the enthusiasm of the tour guide to participate. " Zhan Haiyang said.

Others are worried about the credibility of third-party payment platforms. Some tour guides said that if tourists are not satisfied with the tour guide's service during the tour after paying the tour guide's service fee in advance, can they get a refund? If the tourists' comments are average or bad, will the tour guide's service fee be gone?

Tourism enterprises, test water network about tour guides.

In the face of the New Deal, major travel companies are generally optimistic and have tried "online tour guides". The reporter learned that since the pilot work of online tour guides' free practice was officially launched in May, the National Tourism Administration has successively agreed to carry out pilot work related to the reform and innovation of tour guide management in eight tourism enterprises, including Ctrip.com, Tuniu.com and Tongcheng.com, and come up with corresponding plans in terms of liability insurance, emergency plan and training.

In recent years, with the rapid development of tourism in China, more and more tourists pursue personalized self-help tours and go on road trip, and the proportion of tourists who choose not to travel with a group is rising, about 70%. In this regard, it is not smooth to bind tour guides and travel agencies together, no matter the scope or channels of practice.

"Ctrip, as one of the eight pilot projects, took the lead in implementing the new model of' Internet plus tour guide leader', launched a tour guide booking platform, and formed a closed-loop system for purchasing, paying and evaluating tour guide services, with clear price tag and transparent service." Gwan Chin, customer service director of Ctrip.com, said. Com said that before, citizens mainly booked standard products such as air tickets, hotels and tour groups through online travel platforms. Now when booking routes, they can see the qualifications of tour guides online in advance through the travel platform, including tourists' comments, professional experience, tour group records, integrity files, prices, tour guide card numbers and so on. Visitors can click to book their favorite tour guide, and the tour guide will sign the electronic contract after taking the order.

Tongcheng. Com has established a tour guide evaluation platform, established a tour guide information base, provided the big data analysis function of tour guide evaluation, managed the evaluation content, and accurately monitored the service of tour guides. Tuniu Com is the first in the industry to independently develop and launch the industry's first "tour guide management system". According to the customer satisfaction, tour period and other indicators, the tour leader is divided into three grades: ordinary, silver and gold, and the tour guide is graded according to the customer's return visit comments and the number of tours.

In addition to the eight tourism pilot enterprises approved by the tourism department, they are actively building online tour guide platforms. At present, some entrepreneurial teams are also testing and developing online tour guide related products for tourists to contact and book online. These "online tour guides" usually have many functions, such as drivers, tour guides and photographers, but they are not necessarily tour guides, but they may be students or locals in tourist destinations. They are familiar with the scenic spots, routes and food shops of specific tourist destinations, attracting groups of tourists.

According to industry insiders, with the gradual development of the pilot program of free practice of tour guides, more and more enterprises will join the online tour guide platform, and the "online tour guide" will be more standardized. In the future, travel agencies no longer need to sign many fixed tour guides, and the burden of employing people will be reduced a lot. Dong Ming, general manager of Shanghai Golden Travel, said that the gradual socialization of tour guides can reduce a great burden for the company. At present, this piece bears 5 million to 6 million yuan every year. If it can be reduced by about 2 million, the enterprise will be much easier.

Online tour guide appointment, not giving up.

Some people worry that the implementation and supervision of the pilot work of free practice of tour guides will be very difficult. Compared with the entity operation of travel agencies, how to solve the disputes in online tour guide service? For example, under the traditional tourism mode, if an accident occurs, tourists who have a contractual relationship with the travel agency can sue the travel agency, but online tour guides sign a service contract with individual tour guides. If individual tour guides are sued, will it be more difficult to defend their rights?

Freelance practice does not mean giving up. The National Tourism Administration held a national pilot work conference on the reform of the tour guide system, informing that in the future, freelance tour guides who forcibly sell goods and services to tourists, or sell goods to tourists in disguise, or cheat or cheat tourists, and force tourists to shop, if they are reported and verified by tourists, they will be fined 1000 yuan to 30,000 yuan in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Regulations on the Administration of Tour Guides; Illegal income, confiscate the illegal income; If the circumstances are serious, the tourism administrative department of the relevant government shall revoke the tour guide card and make an announcement.

In reality, Ctrip. com implements "two-way guarantee" to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of tourists and tour guides. For all prepaid transactions, visitors must confirm the tripartite contract of free practice. After the trip, visitors need to confirm the tour guide's service on the platform. After confirmation, the platform will pay the fees paid by the tourists to the tour guide. If there are quality problems in the tour guide service agreed in the contract, Ctrip will implement "first payment" for tourists. In order to cope with sudden risks outside the tour guide service, the platform will prompt tourists to buy travel accident insurance before traveling.

"For tour guides, in addition to providing the guarantee of super-large passenger flow, Ctrip also gives free professional liability insurance for tour guides, and the commission is free during the pilot period." Gwan Chin said.

At present, the Mid-term Evaluation Report on the Pilot Work of Free Practice of Tour Guides shows that 78% of the 2 170 tourists surveyed support the pilot work of free practice of tour guides, and most of them are optimistic about the pilot work.

WU GANG, a tourism expert, believes that the pilot tour guides are free to practice, and the unified booking platform for tour guides is built with the help of Internet technology, so that the tour guides and tourists can make two-way choices under the transparent mechanism, which is beneficial to the information symmetry of both parties, thus promoting more scientific and reasonable market pricing. "Moreover, tour guides are no longer limited by the profit targets of travel agencies and rely on their own real skills to eat. This will not only curb the chaos in the tourism market, but also help the tour guides return to provide valuable services. " WU GANG said.

The reporter learned from Ctrip that before the 11 th holiday, customers placed orders soon after the online tour guide platform was launched. The first person to get the order was Li, a tour guide from Guilin, who became the first person to eat crabs. A tourist surnamed Su from Guangzhou booked a guided walking service in Guilin on September 30th at the price of 200 yuan.

According to statistics, at present, the actual tour guide fee paid by tourists ranges from 200-800 yuan per day on average, which shows that the value of tour guides is different and the needs of different guests are different. Ctrip travel experts predict that the average price of domestic tour guides' free practice is around 500 yuan every day.

"Online tour guides are new things. Online tour guides need offline supervision. Only strict supervision can protect the legitimate interests of tourists. " Han Yuling, a professor at beijing international studies university, said that the pilot work of free practice of tour guides is still in the exploratory stage. How to avoid the new problems brought by online tour guides and straighten out the responsibility relationship among tour guides, tourists, platforms, regulatory authorities and industry associations needs further exploration. She suggested that government departments should introduce relevant laws and regulations, strengthen restrictions on freelance tour guides and online tour guide service platforms, clarify tour guide fees, clearly mark prices, improve travel insurance and compensation systems, and avoid a policy vacuum.

"Standardizing online tour guides, in addition to accountability for illegal tour guides after autumn, it is more important to strengthen supervision before and during the event." Zhai, an associate professor at China Institute of Labor Relations, said that in the process of reviewing the qualifications of tour guides, regulators, industry associations and platforms can access relevant information such as administrative punishment records and credit information systems, and strictly register freelance tour guides.

"It is the general trend to let the market play a decisive role in resource allocation and let tour guides practice freely." Han Yuling said that freeing tour guides to practice freely is undoubtedly a major change in the management of the tourism industry and the best way to release the vitality of the market. In a short time, there may be some problems in the free practice of tour guides, but in the long run, the atmosphere will be improved based on interests.

What is the free practice of tour guides?

Tour guides are free to practice, both online and offline. Free practice of online tour guides refers to the act of guiding tourists to provide individual explanations or tour guide services to consumers who reserve their services through online platforms, and collecting tour guide service fees through third-party payment platforms. Free practice of offline tour guides refers to the practice mode of guiding tourists to provide individual explanations or tour guide services to consumers who make reservations for their services through tourism distribution centers, tourism consultation centers, A-level scenic tourist service centers and other institutions, and collecting tour guide service fees through third-party payment platforms.