Sunday, April 01, 2007

[dodgy agents] named and shamed

Here's a good one:

Beijing will name and shame dodgy tour operators in the city's major papers in a bid to clean up the industry ahead of the 2008 Olympics, state media reported on Friday. Monthly reports from May would list "the most complained about" tour agencies and their offences, the China Daily said.

Most complaints were directed at travel agencies breaking contracts and providing poorer accommodation and transport than advertised, but also included tricking tourists into buying counterfeit goods, the paper said.

Mindful of an extra 2.5 million people expected to swamp the city during the Olympics, China has also pressed tour guides to act as defacto etiquette police, and to quell uncouth behaviour, such as spitting and littering, in their tour groups.

I'd love to tour round Lewisham, say, quelling uncouth behaviour and advising citizens neither to spit nor litter. I'd be on a mission from Tony so those of unsound thinking could be detained and incarcerated. Important job, tour guide.

2 comments:

  1. *
    I touched on this with a Culture vs Race post.

    You've heard of the Million Man March?

    China has the The Billion Loogie Boogie... a massive pre-Olympics social-engineering project...

    In her view, the worst habits of Beijing's residents will be extremely difficult to change unless they are publicly shamed by others. Spitting is one of the nastiest examples.

    *

    ReplyDelete
  2. I can just picture you walking round Lewisham "quelling" the bad behaviour, James! Can I come with you with a red pen and cross out all the greengrocers' apostrophes?!

    ReplyDelete

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