Guides threaten action over group tour reforms
Tour guides are threatening a walkout against a proposed overhaul of how they handle inbound mainland tour groups. The reform is intended to crack down on rogue guides.
With the peak Lunar New Year holiday period approaching, the guides and their union leaders are at loggerheads with the Travel Industry Council and its reform proposal.
At the heart of the stand-off is a plan to impose a 'one-tour, one-guide' policy - something tour guides who make their living from leading mainland tour groups fear will drastically hurt their earnings.
The measure is part of plans by the council to clean up the city's tourism image following a number of embarrassing incidents over the treatment of mainland tour groups.
Hong Kong Tour Guides General Union members are threatening to gather around the council premises if the council does not satisfactorily address their concerns by Thursday.
'Under the council's plan, we would have to stay with one tour group, effectively halving our income,' the union's director, Wu Kwok-wah, said.
From February 1, the council will require a guide who escorts mainland tour groups during the shopping and sightseeing parts of an itinerary to stay on until the tour group returns home.
This requirement is designed to ensure that the guide who benefits from commissions derived from tourist spending is also accountable for any complaints that may arise. Details will be posted on the council's website on Friday.
Usually, different guides handle different parts of the itinerary for mainland tour groups. This often means, on the last day of their trip, tourists are complaining to a guide who was not responsible for their shopping and sightseeing activities and is unable to help them.
In a typical four-day itinerary, a group arrives on the first day, the second day is reserved for shopping and sightseeing, the third day is free and the group returns on the fourth day. One guide will usually receive the group on the first day and accompany them on the second, while a second guide sees them off.
'We want to start the new policy on February 1 to give affected tour guides adequate time to prepare as well as to give mainland visitors added confidence about visiting Hong Kong, especially during the Chinese New Year,' council chairman Michael Wu Siu-ieng said.
The government ordered the council to devise measures to address Hong Kong's tarnished image as a tourist destination in July, after a guide was caught on video berating members of a mainland group for not spending enough in a jewellery store.
That incident followed the death of a mainland tourist who allegedly argued with a guide in a shop before collapsing.
'At present, tour guides work with a mainland tour group every two days,' Wu said.
'This way, they can handle 12 tour groups a month on average, which is good enough to support a family. But the council plan means guides may only be able to work with six tour groups a month.'
