"I used to be a domestic tour guide and have taken large numbers of tourists to Yunnan Province. But I left my job two years ago as I could not tolerate the chaotic market and a working environment that was full of squalid interests anymore," Xiao Mei (pseudonym), a Chengdu-based tour guide said. 

 

Xiao Mei said that most domestic tour guides graduated from low-ranking schools and found it hard to get high-paying jobs. "The way they earn money is like gambling: betting on how much money tourists will spend during the trip," she said.

 

According to her, to attract tourists, more and more travel agencies have begun to offer unreasonably low-price tours, and such tours usually lead to conflicts between tourists and tour guides. "To some extent, tour guides are also a vulnerable group," she said.  

 

A female tour guide in Kunming, Yunnan Province recently had her tour license revoked after video showing her berating visitors for not buying enough souvenirs during the trip went viral. 

 

The video shows the woman threatening to not show the tourists around the next city on their itinerary and saying that the travel agency would not provide them with return plane tickets if they failed to spend at least 3,000 CNY (483 USD) each. 

 

The video quickly spread online, triggering a frenzy of discussion among the public and drawing the attention of the tourism authorities. The National Tourism Administration announced on May 4 that the woman, surnamed Chen, was banned from being a tour guide and the travel agency where she works was fined 50,000 CNY and required to shut down for six months. 

 

This incident has raised concerns over "unreasonably low priced tours," which the authorities claim are the origin of the "diseases" of the tourist market.  

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