Tourism law to protect visitors’ rights

A new draft of a tourism law is expected to protect tourists’ rights and guarantee the healthy development of the tourism market, according to an article in Beijing Times. Excerpt:

The draft is under review by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, which is of great significance to the Chinese tourism market. The rapidly developing domestic tourism industry has exposed tremendous problems in recent years, and eagerly calls for a specific law to regulate it.

As a comprehensive market, tourism involves dozens of industries in several sectors such as transportation, accommodation and business. Lawmakers must balance the interests of consumers, merchants and authorities, which is a difficult process.

In 2011 more than 2.6 trillion tourists visited China, and the number of Chinese tourists traveling aboard exceeded 70 million. Tourism relates to everyone’s life, and so protecting tourists’ legal rights should be lawmakers’ top priority. Russia in April passed an amendment on its tourism law to establish a compensation fund to protect tourists’ rights. China’s lawmakers should learn from this system.