China to name dodgy travel agents
BEIJING will name and shame dodgy tour operators in the city's major papers in a bid to clean up the industry ahead of the 2008 Olympics, state media has reported.

"(We) aim to guide consumers to choose travel agencies with sound credit and weed out of the market those with poor records," the paper quoted Gu Xiaoyuan, deputy director of the Beijing tourism administration, as saying.

Most complaints were directed at travel agencies breaking contracts and providing poorer accommodation and transport than advertised, but also included tricking tourists into buying counterfeit goods, the paper said.

With rising disposable incomes, Chinese have taken to travel with gusto, but fly-by-night tourist operators offering little more than frantic shopping junkets continue to plague the industry.

Mindful of an extra 2.5 million people expected to swamp the city during the Olympics, China has also pressed tour guides to act as de facto etiquette police, and to quell uncouth behaviour, such as spitting and littering, in their tour groups.

NEWS.com.au, Australia