Dalian s tourism service quality this year is so impressive that we need to look at it with new eyes.
From January to August, the number of tourists to Dalian reached 25.686 million person-time, an increase of 9.83%; total tourism income reached 37.04 billion yuan, an increase of 16.8%. In contrast with the increasing number of the tourists, complaints received at Dalian Tourism Quality Supervision and Management fell by about 21%. By the end of the Golden Week of the National Day , there were zero complaints about tourism services against travel agencies. Dalian s tourism services and quality began to sizzle owing to three tried-and-true tactics.
To highlight details for a new image of tourism
Nothing is more important than tourist reception. The development of a city s tourism usually depends on the quality of its tourist reception. By virtue of the east wind by which the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) set the year 2010 as National Tourism Service Quality Improvement Year , Dalian has made great efforts to strengthen the soft power of the field. We have created a more comfortable environment for tourists and put a series of new measurement into effect to improve tourism service quality by focusing on details in tourist reception.
Dalian Municipal Bureau of Tourism issued local standards on Rating and Evaluating the Service Quality of Dalian Travel Agencies and has rated 37 of them as class A. In Dalian now there are 4 travel agencies in class 5-A, 14 in 4-A, 17 in 3-A and 2 in 2-A. In April this year, the Dalian Municipal Bureau of Tourism held promotional activities on the quality products of these travel agencies along Qingniwaqiao pedestrian street and on the quality products in communities in eight boroughs, which were not only convenient for people to choose their favorite travel agencies but also gave a push to the agencies to improve their services.
A column is open at the website of the Dalian Municipal Bureau of Tourism with a title Honesty and Faith , which is used for making public a name list of those enterprises or individuals who have been awarded or complained about or given administrative penalties. At the website of the Dalian Tourism Administration, there is another column named Alerts and Tips for publishing alerts and travel information. During Golden Weeks, major holidays and tourist seasons, or even in emergencies, there will also be consumer tips through the news media.
In 43 return trains between Dalian and Beijing, Shanghai, Zhengzhou and Shenyang, there is a Tips for Dalian Tour on air. On both sides of the outbound channel at the Dalian Railway Station are eye-catching advertisement light boxes to guide tourists in their Dalian tour and their rational consumption. There are many signs for tourism consumption tips at railway stations and passenger terminals to offer tourists related information. Throughout the city, 24 tourist information centers and the hotline 96181 for information and complaints offer timely help in order to solve any problems citizens and tourists may encounter. All of the details above have formed a new image of Dalian s tourism.
To highlight management for good services from qualified teams
A city s tourism image usually depends on the quality of its travel agencies, and services from its tour guides. Dalian has made efforts to improve the management of travel agencies and to train qualified tour guides with effective measures and strategic management.
Dalian Municipal Bureau of Tourism and Dalian Municipal Bureau of Industry and Commerce Administration together promulgated Administrative Regulation on Dalian Travel Agency Branches , explicating requirements for the establishment and operation of branch offices of travel agencies to ensure tourism service quality and to maintain the legitimate rights and interests of tourists. Following the new Administrative Regulation , both bureaus have revised and standardized various contracts such as Dalian Model Contracts for Domestic Tourism, Dalian Model Contracts for One-day Tours and Dalian Model Contracts for Charters, etc, and focused on the control of contract signing, requiring that there should be written contracts between travel agencies and tourists; model contracts should be used and the content should be complete. They have also organized special inspections on travel contracts and punished 5 travel agencies according to the regulation for their incomplete content or lack of contracts with tourists.
They have set up a management system for tour guides to enhance the construction of the team. Tour guides should use the Internet for registration, qualification testing, job application and tour itinerary application; all information about their levels, rewards and punishment are available and all of their practice can be tracked by the system. Tourists can get to know a tour guide s personal details and career information through the Internet, and therefore evaluate the service quality of tour guides.
To highlight rectification for better resolution to one-day-tour problems
The one-day tour has been the chronic with complaints in Dalian s tourism. In order to solve the problem, Dalian is trying again with a heavy blow against it, seriously rectifying the one-day tour market.
The one-day tour product has been put on record and approved more stringently. Travel agencies are required that, in their one-day tour, the intended length of stay in a certain scenic spot should not be less than 3 hours; in a one-day tour of L shun, there should include at least one attraction of 3 A or above; all travel agencies should use the Model Contracts for One-day Tours produced together by the Dalian Municipal Bureau of Tourism and the Dalian Municipal Bureau of Industry and Commerce Administration; all vehicles for one-day tours should post a unified notice For Visitors on a One-day Tour to Know with numbers to call for complaints. Dalian Municipal Bureau of Tourism approves the one-day-tour products from travel agencies with stringency and rejects all those that do not meet the requirements.
More than 90 travel agencies and their 300 one-day-tour products have been filed. Those who entered into record were issued a Registration Certificatefor One-day Tour and got their names publicly listed; those who have not been filed will not be allowed to engage in one-day tours. Before the tourist season this year, persons in charge from nearly 100 travel agencies who engage in one-day tours were trained and were required to standardize their operations.
There was a special rectification on the tourism market in tourist season this year as well. By September 15, Dalian Tourism Law Enforcement Team has carried out 1,430 spot checks of tour guides who are IC card holders and inspected 70 tourism markets. 61 were given administrative penalties, 7 travel agencies and 54 tour guides were punished.
Dalian s tourism industry has, with a good image and high service quality, defused the global financial crisis at the beginning of the year as well as serious natural disasters one after another in major domestic source markets and propelled the rapid development in the field.
From: Development Zone
