Chinanews.com, August 31. According to the website of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism recently issued the "Interim Regulations on the Management of Online Tourism Operation Services" (hereinafter referred to as the "Regulations"), which will be officially implemented on October 1, 2020 . The “Regulations” clearly indicate that online travel operators shall protect the legitimate evaluation rights of tourists, and shall not arbitrarily block or delete the evaluations of tourists on their products and services, and shall not mislead, induce, substitute or force tourists to make evaluations, and shall not The evaluations made should be preserved and made public.
Data map: Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Photo by China News Agency reporter Jia Tianyong
The “online tourism operation service” mentioned in the “Regulations” refers to the operation activities of providing packaged tourism services or individual tourism services such as transportation, accommodation, catering, sightseeing, and entertainment to tourists through information networks such as the Internet.
The “online travel operators” mentioned in the “Regulations” refer to natural persons, legal persons and unincorporated organizations engaged in online travel business services, including online travel platform operators, operators on the platform, and those who provide travel services through self-built websites and other network services Operators. The term "platform operator" refers to a legal person or an unincorporated organization that provides services such as network operation sites, transaction matching, and information release for both or multiple parties in online travel business service transactions. The so-called on-platform operators refer to online travel operators who provide travel services through platform operators.
The "Regulations" point out that online travel operators should provide true and accurate travel service information and must not conduct false publicity; those who have not obtained quality standards and credit ratings must not use related titles and labels. Platform operators shall distinguish between self-operated businesses and businesses carried out by operators on the platform in a significant way. Online travel operators who provide tourists with booking services such as transportation, accommodation and excursions shall establish open, transparent and queryable booking channels to facilitate the performance of relevant booking services in accordance with the contract.
The “Regulations” clearly indicate that online travel operators shall protect the legitimate evaluation rights of tourists, and shall not arbitrarily block or delete the evaluations of tourists on their products and services, and shall not mislead, induce, substitute or force tourists to make evaluations, and shall not The evaluations made should be preserved and made public. When online travel operators delete evaluation information that is prohibited by laws or regulations from being published or transmitted, they shall record and save it in the background.
Online tourism operators should protect the security of tourists’ personal information and other data. When collecting tourist information, they should clearly state in advance the purpose, method and scope of the collection of tourists’ personal information, and obtain the consent of the tourists.
Online travel operators must not abuse technical means such as big data analysis to set unfair trading conditions based on tourists' consumption records, travel preferences, etc., and infringe on the legitimate rights and interests of tourists.
Online tourism operators who provide packaged tourism services to tourists shall sign contracts with tourists in accordance with the law and fill in the relevant information of the contracts on the national tourism supervision service platform. The competent cultural and tourism authorities shall be assisted in the management of unreasonable low-priced tours and shall not be provided with trading opportunities.
The "Regulations" require that the cultural and tourism authorities at all levels should establish a supervision and management system for daily inspections, regular inspections, and joint inspections with relevant departments, and implement supervision and inspections on online tourism business services in accordance with the law, and investigate and deal with violations of laws and regulations. In the process of supervision and inspection, if the competent department of culture and tourism at or above the county level requires online travel operators to provide relevant data and information, the online travel operators shall cooperate. The cultural and tourism authorities at or above the county level shall take necessary measures to protect the safety of data and information.
The “Regulations” mentions that platform operators who know or should know that the operators on the platform do not meet the requirements of protecting the personal and property safety of tourists or have other acts that infringe on the legitimate rights and interests of tourists, and fail to take necessary measures in time, shall operate in accordance with the law The person bears joint and several liability. If the platform operator fails to review the qualifications of the operators on the platform, or fails to perform safety reminders or guarantee obligations to tourists, causing damage to the legitimate rights and interests of tourists, they shall bear corresponding liabilities in accordance with the law.