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| A saleswoman at a shop in the Yuyuan Garden sightseeing and shopping complex pitches products to a British tourist. |
IN China, as in some other countries, the salary of tour guides is low. Some tourism companies do not even pay their guides.
"For these employees, all their income derives from commission and tips," said Chen Jianqin, a professor at the Tourism Administrative College of Shanghai University.~
Earlier legislation by the National Tourism Bureau banned tour guides from taking commissions.
"It was possible for such a stipulation to exist 20 years ago when China was still following a planned economy and tour guides could get a reasonable salary from the travel agency," Chen said.
"But it is not the case in society nowadays, with some companies giving no salary to tour guides and some even demanding money from them."
A recently implemented tour guide regulation doesn't lay down any hard and fast rules prohibiting tour guides from taking certain commissions.
"It subscribes to the common view that tour guides taking commissions from shops are permissible if they are not cheating or forcing the tourists into buying, and so long as the products are of good quality and at reasonable prices," said Chen.
"Only those tour guides who collude with black market tourist shops should be firmly fought against."
Some of the city's businessmen have recently written to the Shanghai Commercial Commission to complain about second rate tourist shops that gain substantial profits in their deals with unethical tour guides.
"Although the city already has regulations in place that prohibit shops from reaping colossal profits by asking exorbitant prices, weak enforcement and insufficient supervision from the relevant government sectors haven't curbed the situation," said Zhu Chengang, a business expert, who is also director of the Shanghai Commerce Studies Centre.
If the city continues this lax surveillance, not only will Shanghai's goal of becoming a primary tourist destination go unfulfilled, its own international image will also be ruined, Zhu added.
