Hong Kong’s Travel Industry Authority is investigating allegations that guides on mainland inbound tours added shopping stops at short notice and pressured visitors to buy products during the National Day holiday period.
The investigation followed an HK01 test of a RMB48 one-day Hong Kong tour, during which shopping was allegedly added and guides allegedly pressured visitors to buy some products suspected of being unregistered Chinese proprietary medicines.
By 9am on October 2, more than 519 mainland tour groups involving about 19,106 visitors had registered to visit Hong Kong between October 1 and 2. Of those, 295 groups involving about 10,666 visitors were due to arrive that day.
The authority said it would increase inspections and enforcement during the holiday, and reminded licensed travel agents and guides to comply with the Tourism Industry Ordinance and directions for licence holders. It would take punitive action if a guide or a shop in the inbound-tour registered-shop scheme was found to have breached the rules.