China News Service, Beijing, September 23. The "November" National Day holiday is approaching. In order to further standardize and optimize the order of the capital's tourism market and protect the legitimate rights and interests of tourists, the Beijing Cultural Market Comprehensive Law Enforcement Corps (referred to as "the Corps") announced before the festival. A number of typical cases of tourism administrative punishments were made, and case reminders were made to remind tourism operators and tourists to improve their legal awareness, consume rationally, and travel safely.
Case 1: The case of a travel agency selling a travel prepaid card to the elderly
Summary of the case: On July 8, 2022, the team received clues from relevant departments and said that an international travel agency in Beijing was selling travel prepaid cards to the elderly.
Law enforcement officers immediately inspected the travel agency's head office, many business outlets and tourism teams on the spot, and found that the agency was selling prepaid travel cards to the elderly by giving away daily necessities and other methods, promising that "you can participate in free travel for many times, and within 1 year. return the principal".
More than 1,000 elderly people were involved in the case, and the personal purchase amount ranged from 10,000 yuan to 300,000 yuan, and the total amount involved exceeded 10 million yuan.
At the same time, it was found that the travel agency had many illegal acts in organizing group tours, such as failing to file through the tourism public information service platform, using vehicles without operational qualifications, and failing to sign contracts with tourists.
In this regard, the team imposed a number of penalties on the travel agency in accordance with the law, with a total of 69,000 yuan in fines and confiscations, and transferred relevant clues to pension-related fraud to relevant departments for further investigation.
Case reminder: In recent years, some criminals have taken advantage of the weak identification ability of the elderly and the weak protection of rights and interests and other forms of selling prepaid travel cards, using high rebates or enjoying free travel and other benefits as bait to defraud the elderly to recharge. .
After recharging or purchasing related products, there are often situations in which the money-takers "run away", the promised benefits cannot be fulfilled, and the pre-deposit cannot be returned.
Remind the majority of elderly friends: do not participate in low-cost elderly tour groups that sell prepaid cards, health care products, wealth management products, and art collections.
Case 2: Travel team involved in the spread of epidemic risk
Summary of the case: On April 22, 2022, the 311th epidemic news conference in Beijing announced that there was one confirmed case of the new crown in an elderly tourist group.
The team immediately intervened in the investigation and found that the travel agency involved was the Beijing branch of an international travel agency.
The company organized a "one-day tour" to Pinggu District on April 20, 2022.
The team failed to file with the tourism authority through the tourism public service information platform, resulting in the risk of the spread of the epidemic.
In this regard, the team imposed an administrative penalty of 34,000 yuan on the travel agency in accordance with the law.
At the same time, an administrative penalty of 50,000 yuan was imposed on a scenic spot that provided preferential discount tickets to tour groups.
Case reminder: At present, the new crown epidemic has repeatedly occurred across the country, and the epidemic prevention and control situation in the capital is still severe.
Tourism practitioners and tourists must always tighten the string of epidemic prevention and control, strictly implement the capital's epidemic prevention and control regulations, strengthen their own health monitoring, and work together to ensure the safety and stability of epidemic prevention and control in the tourism industry.
Case 3: The case of organizing a group tour out of Beijing in violation of the epidemic prevention and control regulations
Summary of the case: According to the clues transferred by the relevant departments, a Beijing Tourism Culture Co., Ltd. violated the epidemic prevention and control regulations and organized a group tour out of Beijing without authorization.
The law enforcement officers of the Corps conducted a law enforcement inspection of the company on August 8, 2022, and found that the company organized 8 tourists to visit Laojun Mountain in Henan Province on July 26, 2022 without obtaining a travel agency business license. The group fee is 3380 yuan per person.
The inspection found that the travel agency had not signed a travel contract with the tourists.
In this regard, the corps imposed an administrative penalty of confiscation of RMB 27,000 of illegal gains and a fine of RMB 20,000 to the unit according to law.
Case reminder: Currently, Beijing still suspends inter-provincial "team travel" and "air ticket + hotel" business.
All travel agencies must continue to implement relevant regulations and requirements, shoulder the main responsibility of enterprises, and resolutely block the spread of the epidemic through tourism teams.
At the same time, tourists are reminded not to travel to high-risk areas in the epidemic, and not to participate in tour groups out of Beijing.
Case 4: The case of a travel agency (individual) operating a travel agency business without a license
Summary of the case: On June 17, 2022, the law enforcement officers of the Corps found dozens of elderly people boarding a tourist bus during the inspection.
In view of the severe epidemic prevention and control situation, the inspectors followed the group inspection and found that the group organized a travel company in Beijing to sell organic vegetables to a certain place in Tongzhou.
Law enforcement officers evacuated and properly accommodated the tourists as soon as possible, and conducted further investigations.
After investigation, a travel company in Beijing has not obtained a travel agency business license.
In this regard, the corps team imposed an administrative penalty of 50,000 yuan on the unit and the directly responsible person according to law.
Since the beginning of this year, the corps has investigated and dealt with more than 10 cases of units or individuals illegally engaging in tourism business activities without obtaining a travel agency business operation license.
Case reminder: Article 28 of the "Tourism Law", Article 6 of the "Regulations on Travel Agencies" and other laws and regulations establish pre-licensing for tourism operators to engage in tourism activities. Office facilities, professional tour guides, payment of travel service quality deposit, purchase of travel agency liability insurance and other conditions are all to fully protect the legitimate rights and interests of tourists.
It is illegal for any company, team or individual to engage in tourism business activities without permission.
Case 5: Failure to sign a contract with a tourist
Summary of the case: A tourist Zhou reported that: a travel company in Beijing did not sign a travel contract when organizing his travel.
The law enforcement officers of the corps conducted a law enforcement inspection on a Beijing tourism company and its Tongzhou branch at the first time, and found that the travel agency had organized a three-day team trip to Handan on July 22, 2021, and the travel agency did not cooperate with the travel team. 18 tourists signed travel contracts.
To this end, the Corps imposed an administrative penalty of 20,000 yuan on the unit.
Since the beginning of this year, the team has investigated and dealt with 7 cases of travel agencies failing to sign travel contracts with tourists.
Case reminder: In order to obtain more benefits, individual travel agency operators evade their own responsibilities and do not sign standardized travel contracts with tourists, which leads to a decline in the quality of travel services, destroys the business order and healthy development of the travel agency industry, and damages the legitimate rights and interests of tourists.
It is hoped that the majority of tourists will be vigilant when participating in group tours, and must sign a formal travel contract to safeguard their rights afterwards.
Case 6: The case of a travel agency leasing out a travel agency business license
Summary of the case: On April 1, 2022, the relevant departments found that an international travel agency in Beijing and a travel agency in Beijing Co., Ltd. had the qualification to lease and lend travel agency business licenses when handling a series of cases involving illegal business operations.
After receiving the transfer clues, the corps promptly filed a case to carry out investigation and evidence collection.
After investigation, an international travel agency in Beijing and a travel agency in Beijing Co., Ltd. rented the account number and password of their electronic itinerary to relevant personnel for use and made illegal profits.
In this regard, the corps revokes the travel agency business licenses for the above two travel agencies according to law, and imposes a fine on the responsible persons.
Case reminder: travel agency enterprises should learn from this and effectively strengthen the standardized management of sales departments and service outlets. Travel agencies are prohibited from renting out or lending travel agency business licenses in disguised forms such as franchise and contracting in their daily operation and management.
The business department and service outlets of travel agencies shall operate in accordance with the law, strictly implement the "Regulations on Travel Agencies", and shall not engage in business activities other than publicity and solicitation.
Case 7: The case where the tour guide contracted the tour guide business without the appointment of the travel agency
Case summary: At 7:00 a.m. on August 23, 2022, the law enforcement officers of the Corps, together with the public security, traffic, and relevant departments of Xicheng District, carried out a joint law enforcement inspection in Tiananmen Square and its surroundings, and found that some tourists who had watched the flag raising boarded a bus to Go to Badaling Great Wall "One Day Tour".
After further verification, the group of tourists was not organized by the travel agency, but was solicited and organized by the tour guide Qin.
In this regard, the team imposed an administrative penalty of a fine of 5,000 yuan on the tour guide Qin according to law.
Since the summer vacation this year, the corps has seized 9 cases of tour guides who have not been appointed by travel agencies, privately contracted or directly contracted tour guide business in other ways, and fined 1,000 to 10,000 yuan respectively.
Case reminder: Paragraph 2 of Article 102 of the "Tourism Law": If a tour guide or tour leader violates the provisions of this law and undertakes business without permission, the competent tourism department shall order it to make corrections, confiscate the illegal income, impose a fine of not less than 1,000 yuan but not more than 10,000 yuan, and Suspend or revoke the tour guide license.
Tour guides are requested to carry out professional business activities in accordance with laws and regulations, strive to improve their own service quality, consciously maintain a good order in the tourism market, and raise awareness of risk prevention among the general public and tourists.
Case 8: The case of soliciting and organizing tourism business activities without authorization through the Internet
Summary of the case: On April 10, 2022, the team received a clue from the relevant department that the WeChat public account named "Night Tour Tiananmen" was suspected of illegally organizing tourism activities.
At about 9 o'clock in the evening on the same day, the law enforcement officers of the general team found during law enforcement inspections around Tiananmen Square that Wang, a tour guide who was providing tour guide explanation services for a tour group, had not obtained a tour guide qualification certificate.
After investigation and verification: all the tourists in the tour group signed up through the WeChat public account named "Night Tour Tiananmen" and paid through the WeChat group.
To this end, the team imposed an administrative penalty of 1,000 yuan on Wang for engaging in tour guide activities without a tour guide license.
Case reminder: At present, some criminals use WeChat public accounts or online social platforms to falsely promote tourist routes and product information, and use WeChat group groups to seek illegal benefits, which poses a greater security risk.
If tourists participate in illegal tour groups, it is difficult to obtain corresponding compensation once the interests of tourists are damaged.
Remind the majority of tourists that they must choose formal travel channels when registering for a group tour, and they must verify the legal qualifications of the operator when they register for a group tour through an online travel platform, so as to ensure peace of mind and peace of mind when traveling.
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