Many hotels are refusing to stock condoms given out as part of an AIDS
awareness initiative, it has emerged.
In accordance with the Regulation on AIDS Prevention and Control issued in
March, Shanghai Municipal Commission of Population and Family Planning
instructed district governments to send out condoms to be distributed at venues
such as hotels and entertainment spots. But as many as 40 per cent of the
condoms sent out in Pudong New Area have been refused or not offered to guests,
according to an investigation by a newspaper.
A spokeswoman for the Shanghai Inter Continental Hotel explained: "We never
provide or sell condoms in our hotel. We must comply with a uniform standard set
by our company to arrange the layout of rooms in the hotel. Our hotel hasn't
received any circular released by Shanghai Municipal Commission of Population
and Family Planning."
For some hotels and entertainment venues, condoms are considered too private
and personal an issue.A woman, who asked not to be named, working at the guest
room department of the five-star Okura Garden Hotel Shanghai said: "We only
provide life necessities in our hotels, and condoms are something relating to
privacy.
"If customers need them, they can bring condoms themselves, and it is very
convenient to buy them at supermarkets and drugstores throughout the city."
Other hotels find providing condoms a waste of money. "Most of our customers
come as singles on a business trip. They do not really need condoms. Those who
come as a couple will bring condoms with them - they will not use the condoms
provided for free. So,we have no plan to put condoms in the rooms of our
hotel.It's nothing but a waste of money," said a staff member at 88 Xintiandi
Shanghai, a hotel.
Fan Jincheng, deputy director of the Social Development Bureau of Pudong New
Area, admitted there was a problem with hotels stocking condoms.
He said: "Among the 200 hotels above the level of three stars, only 10 to 20
of them have agreed to install the condom vending machines sent by the
government,and more than half of the hotels refuse to accept free condoms." The
biggest obstruction comes from people's way of thinking, he added.
In January 2006, the Chinese Government, along with WHO and UNAIDS (The Joint
United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS), estimated that 650,000 people were living
with HIV in China, including about 75,000 AIDS patients.
"We are making committed efforts to promulgate the use of condoms in order to
cut the infectious source of AIDS. Besides, we try every means to promote
citizens' awareness of AIDS, which is an active response to the spirit of the
Regulation on AIDS Prevention and Control issued this March," explained an
official with Shanghai Municipal Commission of Population and Family
Planning,who asked not to be named.
"I have also heard that the promulgation work of getting condoms into high
class hotels has encountered some obstacles, but we have the confidence to
better our work and we believe that through further promotion, we can see bright
prospects in terms of preventing AIDS."
