Beijing tourism authorities yesterday vowed to further regulate the cross-border travel market for local residents.

Yu Changjiang, director of the Beijing Municipal Tourism Bureau, stressed that strict supervision over market order is vital to the recovery of the capital city's tourism industry after the SARS outbreak.

In conjunction with the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Industry and Commerce, Yu's bureau yesterday released an implementary unified contract on exit travel, replacing previous contracts drafted by various travel agencies.

The previous agreements caused conflicts between travelers and tour agencies as some agencies tried to avoid shouldering responsibilities through the self-drafted unequal contracts.

"Instead, the new unified travel contract gives priority to the protection of the rights of consumers on the basis of equality," said Gu Xiaoyuan, vice-director of the Beijing Municipal Tourism Bureau.

For example, according to previous regulations, travel agencies refunded 10 per cent of the tour fees to consumers when violating the treaty, but travelers had to pay 30 to 100 per cent of the fees for the same violation, according to Wang Yanguang, a marketing chief of the China International Travel Service Head Office.

The new unified contract stipulates equal responsibility for agencies and travelers for violating the agreement, with a penalty of 10 to 30 per cent of the fees.

Travelers are given eight rights and eight obligations in the contract, while travel agencies are given six of each.

Sources with the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Industry and Commerce said the final version of the special contract will be released six months after the trial implementation period.

The bureau also vowed to toughen punishment for cheating and to penalize agencies who refuse to sign contracts with consumers.

Meanwhile, the tourism authorities will adopt a credit system for travel agencies in the latter half of this month and will regularly publish the credit condition of travel agencies.

According to a prediction by the World Tourism Organization, China will become the fourth-largest tourism export country by 2020.

The Beijing Municipal Tourism Bureau reported a total of 286,000 Beijing residents traveled abroad last year - an increase of 48.4 per cent over 2001.

(China Daily September 17, 2003)