China's National Tourism Administration has issued a serious warning to Lijiang, a tourist city in southwest China's Yunnan Province for its unsatisfactory complaint handling and disorderly tourism market.
The warning came from the authority's reference to an evaluation done by a national committee working on the assessment and development of tourism resources in Lijiang, including the Old Town of Lijiang where complaints and conflicts have taken place frequently.
The administration added that incidents involving attacks on tourists and property loss or damage have had a negative influence on the image of Lijiang. The city government was requested to rectify and reform its tourism market within six months.
Along with the city government, the Management Authority of the Old Town of Lijiang apologized for recent incidents, and promised to solve the problems pointed out by the public.
In recent years, Lijiang has been known not only for its natural scenes and cultural ambience, which attracted over 35 million visits in 2016, but also for constant conflicts between the locals and visitors.
Last November, a woman was pummeled by a group of locals when she had dinner at a restaurant in Lijiang. The victim, who left her screen name "@Lindashiwo", said that the people parroted her dialect on purpose. As she tried to stop them from imitating her, they pulled her out and beat her up.
The adverse image of the city has incurred netizens’ dissatisfaction. Some left comments on Lijiang's official Weibo account, vowing they will boycott the city, only to receive responses such as, “You’d better not come here.” The screenshot of such a reply has been posted online by netizens, but Lijiang officials have denied it and reported it to the local police.
Yunnan Province is well known for its affluent tourism resources. The Old Town of Lijiang City and the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain have become must-visits on tourists’ itineraries.
However, the province has been plagued by a chaotic tourism market. Lijiang’s violent incident is not the only flaw on the face of the province. Earlier this year, Yunnan Vice Governor Chen Shun exposed his personal experience when he, acting as a visitor, traveled around the province and revealed travel agencies’ malpractices in forcing tourists to shop.
Recent statistics published by the People’s Daily’s travel section show among a total of 797 tourism complaints in 2016, 317 involved Yunnan.
