Recently, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued the Opinions on Promoting the High-quality Development of the Online Tourism Market (hereinafter referred to as the Opinions). The "Opinions" proposes to actively play the pivotal and leading role of online tourism, accelerate the development of smart tourism, promote the innovative development of the tourism industry, promote the application and iterative innovation of new technologies, create more new employment forms and new jobs, become a new engine for tourism industry upgrading and tourism consumption stimulation, improve the digital level of industry management, and promote the development of China's online tourism industry in an international leading position.
The "Opinions" put forward that the focus of work should be highlighted and a good market environment should be created. Online tour operators are required to improve safety production management systems and emergency response plans, do a good job in risk monitoring and safety assessment of tourism products or services on the shelves, strengthen product security guarantees from multiple links such as early warning identification, algorithm recommendation, report handling, content review, and risk warnings, and verify in advance products involving a large number of tourists, easy to cause crowd gathering, potential safety risks, or concentrated complaints from tourists. In the event of an emergency or tourism safety accident, necessary measures should be taken immediately, and relevant departments should be cooperated with the rescue, investigation and aftermath disposal. Strengthen the protection of tourists' sensitive personal information, prevent the collection of tourists' personal information beyond the needs of reasonable operations, and employ practical measures to avoid acts that infringe on tourists' rights and interests, such as big data killing, false publicity, and false bookings.
The "Opinions" proposed to improve regulatory means and regulate market order in accordance with the law. Focus on patrolling issues such as the security of online tour operation service information content, engaging in travel agency business activities without permission, selling "unreasonable low-price tour" products, and illegally collecting and using users' personal information, and remind, warn, and stop problematic online tour operators through administrative interviews, administrative guidance, and other means, and promptly transfer clues of illegal conduct to law enforcement departments for investigation and handling in accordance with law. All levels of cultural and tourism administrative departments shall, in accordance with the principle of integrated online and offline supervision, establish a supervision and management system for routine inspections, periodic inspections, and joint inspections with relevant departments, carry out supervision and inspection of online tourism operation services in accordance with law, and investigate and deal with violations of laws and regulations. Strengthen the establishment of a culture of creditworthiness in the online travel industry, and establish a group of typical creditworthiness enterprises. Improve the "good and bad evaluation" system for government services in the cultural and tourism market, improve the incentive mechanism for praise and the supervision mechanism for handling bad reviews, and promote the "one-network handling" of enterprise-related matters. Promote the use of standardized tourism electronic contracts by online tour operators, promote the implementation of the "Tourism Electronic Contract Management and Service Specification" standards, and strengthen the aggregation and sharing of regulatory information.
The "Opinions" put forward to strengthen support and guidance and promote the high-quality development of the industry. Guide online tour operators to make good use of the relief policies for the recovery and development of cultural and tourism industries. Do a good job in the implementation of inclusive tax and fee reduction policies in the tourism sector, and encourage banking financial institutions to reasonably increase the effective credit supply of online tour operators. Make good use of financial incentives, project investment, consumption promotion, government services and other measures to support online tourism operators to participate in cultural and tourism consumption activities to benefit the people, and enhance confidence in development. Explore online travel platform operators with the ability to digitize business processes and supplier credit assessment to operate tourism product pre-sale business in accordance with the law, standardize the pre-sale business of tourism products of operators within the platform, and further strengthen the digital management level of the industrial chain. Promote the in-depth application of new technologies such as 5G, artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, and blockchain by online tour operators, and lead the innovation and development of the industry with science and technology. Support online tour operators in establishing industry associations, promote industry self-discipline, and urge relevant operators to operate in accordance with laws and regulations. (Author: Xu Xiao, reporter of China Tourism Daily; Editor: Yang Shuo)