What is the root cause of Heilongjiang’s “Xuexiang Slaughter” incident?

The Shuangfeng Forest Farm of the Dahailin Key State-owned Forest Management Bureau in Heilongjiang Province, known as the "Snow Town of China", is a traditional forest area in the southeast of Heilongjiang Province. In 1999, due to the reduction of forest resources, it was proposed to develop forest tourism with "China Snow Country" as the core around "heavy and thick snow".

The beauty of "Snow Country" was quickly discovered and spread by a group of photography enthusiasts. After 2008, the number of tourists in Xuexiang began to increase significantly. According to statistics, Xuexiang achieved a tourism output value of more than 230 million yuan in 2016, directly driving local catering revenue of 30.32 million yuan, accommodation revenue of 34.98 million yuan, mountain goods and other shopping revenue of 55.98 million yuan, and driving regional tourism-related industry revenue of 500 million yuan.

In the booming "Snow Village", "customer rip-offs" began to occur. In January 2015, a netizen exposed that the price of staying in a local "sky-high price kang" for a night was as high as 3,200 yuan, which attracted public attention and the relevant departments began to increase efforts to improve the tourism environment in scenic spots. At the beginning of 2018, complaints from tourists pushed the famous Northeastern ice and snow scenic spot "Snow Township" to the forefront. There are many reasons for the continuous occurrence of "customer rip-off" incidents.

It is understood that most of the tour guides engaged in "snow town" tourism have no basic salary and no insurance, so they rely on making profits from tourists.

The strong seasonal factors in the ice and snow tourism market have led to the desire for quick success among businesses; some "black tour guides" have zero base salary and no guarantee, which has given rise to a profit-seeking mentality; "Kowloon flood control"-like supervision between regions or departments is easy to produce Supervision loopholes; many tourists lack awareness and enthusiasm for rights protection, which encourages merchants to "rip off customers" with arrogance. All of these have led to frequent “customer rip-off” incidents.

Currently, domestic tourism consumption demand is strong, but the supply of tourism products cannot keep up with the demand for consumption upgrades. The integrity system in the tourism market is not yet complete, the awareness of the rule of law is weak, and industry management and service levels need to be improved and improved.

At present, relevant departments in Heilongjiang are warning travel agencies that operate winter ice and snow tourism business to abide by the law and operate with integrity and strictly manage tour guides. Multiple departments will jointly carry out comprehensive rectification of the winter tourism market order to effectively safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.