How to punish travel agencies for forcing tourists to shop?

When going on vacation or traveling with a group, some tour guides force tourists to spend more and more money on shopping, and tourists complain more and more about the forced shopping and sky-high shopping by tour guides. So how to punish the tour guide for this forced shopping behavior? The National Tourism Administration released this official document on September 29th, 20 15. The document lists in detail the identification methods of fraud and forced shopping and the specific punishment measures for the perpetrators, which will be introduced in detail below.

First, these behaviors cheat and force shopping consumption:

1. Travel agencies and tour guides force tourists to shop by threatening or intimidating tourists;

2. The shopping places arranged by travel agencies and tour guides are illegal or not open to the public;

3 travel agencies arrange shopping without the written consent of tourists;

4. Travel agencies and tour guides arrange shopping places to sell adulterated and adulterated goods, so as to confuse the genuine with the fake, shoddy and pass unqualified products off as qualified products;

5. Travel agencies and tour guides know or should know that the operators of shopping places have records that seriously damage the rights and interests of tourists;

6. Travel agencies and tour guides collect kickbacks and other illegitimate interests from shopping operators;

7. The operators of shopping places are under the circumstances stipulated in Article 56 of the Consumer Protection Law;

8. Other acts of travel agencies, tour guides and shopping place operators that harm the legitimate rights and interests of tourists by arranging shopping as stipulated by laws and regulations.

Second, the punishment of cheating and compulsory shopping:

(1) Penalties for travel agencies;

1, confiscate the illegal income and order it to suspend business for rectification for three months. If the circumstances are serious, the business license of the travel agency shall be revoked;

2, a fine of three hundred thousand yuan, illegal income of more than three hundred thousand yuan, a fine of five times the illegal income;

3, included in the tourism business service bad information, and transferred to the tourism business service credit file, announced to the public.

(two) the punishment of the responsible person of the travel agency;

1, confiscate the illegal income and impose a fine of 20,000 yuan on the directly responsible person in charge and other directly responsible personnel;

2. The legal representative and main management personnel of the travel agency whose business license has been revoked shall not engage in travel agency business if it has not been more than three years since the date of punishment;

3, included in the tourism business service bad information, and transferred to the tourism business service credit file, announced to the public.

(3) Penalties for tour guides and tour leaders:

1, confiscate the illegal income, impose a fine of 20,000, and revoke the tour guide card and tour guide card;

2. A tour guide or tour leader whose tour guide card or tour guide card has been revoked shall not re-apply for a tour guide card or tour guide card if it has not been more than three years since the date of punishment;

3, included in the tourism business service bad information, and transferred to the tourism business service credit file, announced to the public.

(four) the handling of shopping places and their operators;

1, included in the bad information of tourism business services, and transferred to the credit file of tourism business services, and announced to the public;

2. Require travel agencies and their employees not to take tourists into shopping places listed in the credit file list of tourism management services;

3, according to the law handed over to the public security, industry and commerce and other relevant departments.

The new Tourism Law stipulates that when tourists think their legitimate rights and interests have been violated, there are four ways to protect their rights.

Consumers encounter disputes in tourism, which can be resolved through consultation between the two parties;

Apply for mediation to consumers' associations, tourist complaint acceptance agencies or relevant mediation organizations;

According to the arbitration agreement reached with the tour operators, submit it to an arbitration institution for arbitration;

At the same time, you can also bring a lawsuit to the court.

Matters needing attention

Tourists can choose the way to protect their rights according to the degree of infringement of their rights and interests, the actual factual evidence, the expectation of the limit and compensation amount, and the result of the travel agency's handling of the incident.