(Original title: 12 Chinese tourists escaped in Thailand!) The travel agency was punished miserably! Thailand tourist visa is so difficult to obtain, is strict review really useful? ）
Recently, 12 Chinese tourists left the tour group during their trip to Thailand, resulting in the revocation of the operating license of their travel agency.
After this happened, it quickly set off a heated discussion on the Internet——
Why did the 12 Chinese tourists to Thailand leave the group?
Visas on arrival and travel visas can obviously enter Thailand, why choose to set up a good tour group, and then affect your travel agency?
In addition, nowadays Thailand tourist visa is so difficult to obtain, is strict review really useful?
Straits Herald, Like 545
On May 22, the Xiamen Cultural Market Comprehensive Law Enforcement Detachment handled a case in which tourists left the tour during the outbound tour organized by a travel agency and did not report it in time. The Xiamen Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism made an administrative penalty decision to revoke the business license of travel agencies in accordance with the Tourism Law.
The information released by the Xiamen Cultural Tourism Law Enforcement Official Account shows:
After receiving the clues assigned by the superiors, the law enforcement personnel of the detachment quickly went to the travel agency involved in the case to conduct on-site inspection, launched an investigation and questioning of the relevant personnel, extracted and fixed relevant evidence, and completed the investigation of the case in the shortest possible time.
After investigation, during the period when the department organized Chen and other 12 people to travel to Thailand, when it was found that the 12 tourists had left the group and stayed abroad and did not return, they did not report to the relevant departments in time as required.
According to the investigation situation, in view of the illegal circumstances of the department, after collective discussion, an administrative punishment decision was made to revoke the business license of the travel agency.
In the next step, the Xiamen Cultural Market Comprehensive Law Enforcement Detachment will use this case as a case to deter and warn travel agencies, and continue to strengthen law enforcement to further standardize the order of the outbound tourism market and help the orderly recovery of the outbound tourism market.
[Chinese tourists leave the group, the consequences are very serious! ] 】
In 2023, after the epidemic, the Sino-Thai tourism industry will open up, and the biggest change is that the ratio of "group travelers" and "independent travelers" is not the same as in 2019.
From January to May this year, the number of Chinese tourists to Thailand reached more than 1 million, mostly independent travel, although the number of group tourists, although existed, but the number was small, the reason is naturally that Thai visas are difficult to obtain - independent tourists can directly sign on arrival as an individual, while group tourists, can only rely on the "group travel visa" submitted by travel agencies for approval.
Therefore, group guests are stuck in the "group signature" can not be done...
Behind the above-mentioned phenomenon of increasing the proportion of independent tourists, it also shows that the autonomy of Chinese tourists in tourism exploration has begun to increase - some 90s and 00s buy tickets on the same day to fly to Thailand, and the strategy in the mobile phone is now in use, and there is no need to follow the group, let alone any tour guide.
Popular Thai attractions, they are all blocked, every time they go to an "unpopular attraction", as long as they open WeChat "people nearby" and find that there are too many Chinese tourists, they all turn around and leave. What they play is a unique free travel route, and absolutely do not allow someone's WeChat circle of friends in this world to "collide" with them.
The autonomy, secondary two, enthusiasm, excitement and vitality of young people are naturally good at a certain level, representing the in-depth exploration and active exploration of Thailand's tourism industry by foreigners. And far from commercial tourist areas, it is difficult to meet unscrupulous merchants to sit on the starting price. Therefore, Chinese independent tourists are actually more conducive to the income generation and development of the industry.
To put it simply, there are too many options for independent travel, and relying on the three major tools of "Weibo, Little Red Book, and Douyin", plus the "translation APP" of voice translation, it is enough for explorers to break into Siam.
In the future, either travel agencies have evolved novel tour programs suitable for young people, or tour groups will only be limited to "elderly retirement groups" or "unit annual leave contracting".
But! But! In Thailand, "free travel is free travel", "following a group is following a group", tourists must not travel freely for a while, follow the group for a while, or follow the group for a while.
Especially the latter, the consequences of Chinese tourists leaving the tour group are very serious, according to the relevant laws and regulations of China, it is divided into the following three situations:
(1) Short-term departure from the group, short-term return, no punishment (for example, temporarily lost at the front door and unable to find a guide, and finally returned at the back door meeting point, it still belongs to the legal category and does not constitute a violation and crime);
(2) If you feel that the tour group is too rushed and not fun, you leave the group and run away privately, become a "free traveler" tourist, and are eventually recovered by the travel agency (but the visa has not expired and has not been illegally stayed), then the hostel will impose a reasonable fine (collect liquidated damages) or confiscate the travel deposit on the tourist in accordance with the tourism contract or regulations reached in advance between the two parties...
(3) If they leave the group and flee without permission, cannot be recovered for a long time, their visas expire, their overstays, or even begin to take root, and illegal work, investment, etc., the tourists involved are likely to be arrested by the Thai immigration bureau and the police during the sweep and detained in a "temporary detention center" to await repatriation.
After repatriation, according to the relevant provisions of China's Exit and Entry Administration Law and other relevant regulations, the passports of Chinese tourists who leave the tour will be revoked, and they are not allowed to apply for passports and visas for 6 months to three years.
If the circumstances are serious, maybe you don't want to leave the country again in this life.
At the same time, the Thai immigration bureau will also block such "repatriated persons".
【Is it reasonable for Chinese tourists to leave the tour group, and the travel agency is jointly and severally liable?】 Thailand tourist visa is so difficult to obtain, is strict review really useful? 】
From a safety point of view, travel agencies are indeed responsible for tourists, and within regular safety responsibilities, the consequences of tourists disappearing are the most serious!
Although tourists do not have wings, but two legs can still fly, such as the 12 Chinese tourists in today's news, or do not run, run 12 people in one breath, and then catch or not I don't know, people don't know where, it's hard to believe that this is an unpremeditated, unplanned accident.
The Tourism Law stipulates that after a tourist leaves a tour group or loses contact, travel agencies must report it immediately without delay, otherwise they will be investigated for their business license or the punishment will be expanded.
But from the perspective of travel agencies, the so-called "timely reporting" and "looking for tourists to suppress the storm" is essentially a difficult trade-off - reporting, confirming the fact that a tour guide of the hostel took tourists out of the group, but if it is not reported, the entire hostel license is gone.
In the end, in the spirit of "give it a shot", hostels and tour guides, basically willing to choose to continue to look for tourists, firmly believe that they will be found, and the result is that until all methods fail, the paper cannot contain the fire.
Do hostels have "anti-escape" measures? Of course!
Recently, it is difficult for Chinese tourists to obtain travel visas, and the review is layer after layer, asking for "property certificate, flow certificate", but also a "address certificate", and there is also a "unit certificate" in the early stage of the epidemic.
But does this work? Which criminal was not a normal person before committing the crime? As long as the criminal maintains legal behavior in the crowd, can you arrest him and accuse him of "about to commit a crime" before committing a crime?!
Obviously, it can't.
Reviewing Chinese's tourist signature until it "catches fire" and turning the passport over is just a placebo for "deceiving yourself".
Aren't the tourist visas of the 12 Chinese tourists also the result of a "carpet" strict inspection and review by the Thai visa department?
To this day, I can still run 12 people.
So, 12 people escaped from the group, can it mean that the Thai visa department should not strictly check tourist visas, and then relax the entry of a large number of Chinese tourists?
The current results show that it should indeed be relaxed - because Thailand strictly checks tourist visas, and there is little contact with 12 people. To say a nonsense that is not nonsense, that is, "before sinning, everyone was a good person." ”
Before arriving at the local violation of the law, Thailand determines whether to "sign" by strictly checking the tourists' materials, just like players looking at the trend chart to buy lottery tickets, "winning" is the will of God - hard work, hard work; Is it serious, is it serious; Strictly investigated, strictly investigated; Did it cause difficulties for Chinese to apply for a tourist visa, caused it, and more than a little...
So, is it really useful?
Yes, but not much.
Even, bad rating.
Thailand, or really need to think about the way to review the visa, the real situation, is to test the validity of the visa policy is an important feedback, don't stop for half a day, good tourists can not go out, go out as soon as they land...
In this case, the tourist visa will have to be tossed for several months, and there are so many materials....
Of course, for Chinese tourists, creating a good visa approval environment must be mutually exclusive, although the 12 detourists are not related to other tourists, but this may also be an excuse and reference for Thailand to continue to strengthen visa processing.
Those 12 people who left the tour are undoubtedly the "disaster stars" who let the travel agency back the pot, and the "rat" that tightens the follow-up visa review....
Thailand is full of surveillance, what are you running....
Hurry up and get back! This time you went abroad "very well", don't go abroad next time!
Text: Thai Net Cloth Week Ten Noodles