Travel Industry Council meets non-compliant businesses to explain new guidelines
SHIRLEY.ZHAO@SCMP.COM
PUBLISHED : Monday, 11 January, 2016, 4:15pm
UPDATED : Monday, 11 January, 2016, 4:28pm
The Travel Industry Council tried to reassure business owners who left the revised refund protection scheme. Photo: NowTV
A total of 16 shops have quit a refund protection scheme after it was made stricter by the tourism industry watchdog.
The Travel Industry Council met these shops on Monday – one day ahead of a march, expected to be joined by 500 people from the industry, against the revised scheme – to explain the new guidelines to them.
The new measures were implemented on Jan 1, including a refund protection scheme to enable group visitors from the mainland who made purchases at registered shops to receive full refunds if they lodged their requests within six months of the purchase in question.
The council also planned to increase spot checks at tourist attractions and shops joining its initiative to ensure strict adherence to the rules.
Some in the industry have been complaining about one of the rules, which says the council will suspend the registration of a shop and require members to stop arranging for inbound tourists to visit the store concerned if it is suspected of breaching the Trade Description Ordinance. They said this rule was too strict in punishing those who were only suspected of breaching the regulations.
But after meeting the 16 businesses, council executive director Joseph Tung Yiu-chung said the council would launch an investigation first before punishing the shops involved.
“The council is not the emperor,” said Tung. “We have no right to deregister a shop as soon as it’s suspected [of breaching the rules].”
READ MORE: Tour guides protest strict checks in Hong Kong by not wearing their licences
But Lam Siu-lun, honorary president of the Hong Kong Tourism Practitioners’ Union, said the council should revise the rules and take the word “suspected” out of the text, instead of explaining the rules to the industry.
“The more they explain, the worse it will get,” said Lam. “Everybody can understand what’s written on paper.”
The union has launched a non-compliance campaign against the new measures, where member tour guides would not wear their badges, which is directly against the council’s rules.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/economy/article/1899917/sixteen-hong-kong-shops-quit-stricter-refund-protection
