Good news for travelers planning to visit Thailand during the New Year or Spring Festival holidays: The governments of China and Thailand recently agreed to crack down on unscrupulous tour operators and guides.

Thailand, one of the most-popular destinations for Chinese travelers, has long been criticized by tourists for its unqualified guides and tour organizers, unfair charges for tourists, substandard souvenirs and indecent places.

"Our Thai tour guide left us in a large souvenir shop that was not part of our itinerary for almost two hours," said Michael Zhao of Beijing, who visited Thailand last month.

Although Zhao and his friends had asked their Thai guide not to take them to indecent places, the guide led them to a massage parlor offering sex services, Zhao said.

To prevent an ever-worsening situation in the Thai tourism market, the Thai government will regulate Chinese package groups to Thailand.

"We, together with our Chinese counterparts, are working hard to change the unsatisfactory situation in the tourism market," said Pradech Phayakvichien, governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

Pradech said the Thai Tourism Authority will establish hot lines for tourist complaints and disseminate Chinese-language guidebooks to inform tourists how to lodge complaints, and the reasonable costs for goods and services in Thailand.

In addition, Thailand will investigate travel operators that reportedly have taken Chinese tourists to indecent places and inform the Chinese agency as soon as possible the results of the investigation.

Meanwhile, China National Tourism Administration is regulating domestic package tour operators advertising trips to Thailand.

The administration has ordered tour operators not to overstate in their package tour advertisements and not run optional tours. A recent statement also forbids any forced or excessive shopping programs and erotic sightseeing excursions.

The government has banned domestic travel agencies from operating zero-cost tours in which agencies pay only the cost of the flight, while tour operators in the visited country earn their money directly from the amount tourists spend.

"The zero-cost tour is the crucial reason the problems occurred in the Thailand tourism market," said Yu Shengcheng, manager of a Shanghai travel agency.

Yu said that there are some substandard tour guides in Thailand who handle zero-cost tours from China.

(Eastday.com 12/26/2000)