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Family members of former national team table tennis player Chen Youming weep outside the Public Mortuary in Hong Kong Wednesday, where Chen's funeral was held. Chen, on a tour in the city, died of a heart attack May 22 after arguing with a local tour guide. Provided to China Daily

Involvement of unlicensed guide suspected in fatal tourist heart attack

An unlicensed tour guide has been cited as the second person involved in a quarrel with a mainland tourist who subsequently suffered a fatal heart attack.

At a Wednesday press briefing on the progress of the investigation into the incident, Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong (TIC) Chairman Michael Wu said the identity of the tour guide remained unclear.

Win's Travel Agency, operator of the tour in which the deceased Chen Youming took part, has furnished TIC with the name and license number of the tour guide. The tour guide, when contacted, however, said she did not conduct the tour. She held that someone else must have worked the tour using her license number, and said she had alerted police.

TIC had demanded an explanation from Win's within 14 days. Severe penalties - including revocation of the licenses of the travel agency and the tour guide - will be meted out if there has been any violation of TIC codes, Wu said.

TIC Executive Director Joseph Tung pointed out that the travel agency is most likely to have hired an unlicensed tour guide against the council's regulation.

"The tour guide denied having received the group; this is the most suspicious part of the matter," he said.

TIC hopes to wrap up the investigation by mid-June and decide what action to take after a committee reviews the information collected.

The self-governing body of travel agencies received a request for assistance on May 24 from the family of Chen, who, together with his wife, took part in a 4-day-3-night tour package sold by Hunan Overseas Travel Agency. The tragedy took place on May 22, the second day the group was in Hong Kong.

According to reports, the group was taken to a Hung Hom jewelry shop, JW Jewellery Outlet Limited, but Chen walked out and read a newspaper outside the shop. After an attempt to persuade Chen to re-enter the shop failed, the tour guide, a woman in her 40s, allegedly began to quarrel with Chen. Chen collapsed during the heated argument. A shop assistant called the emergency hotline but Chen died soon after he was admitted to Queen Elizabeth Hospital. A police investigation found no suspicious circumstances.

The incident brought the "forced shopping" practice of the travel industry to the fore. Earning no profit or even losing money on cut-rate packages, travel agencies rely on commissions on tourists' purchases for profit. Tour guides, with low basic salaries, resort to trickery and verbal abuse to generate more kickbacks. A jewelry shop, for example, will give 55 percent of the value of a tourist's purchases to travel agencies, including 8 percent for the guide.

Measures have been taken to curb the practice since 2007, but stamping it out is apparently difficult. From January to May, TIC received 173 complaints by mainland tour groups and 145 involved shopping, surging by 64.8 percent and 85.8 percent over the same period last year.

Acting Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Gregory So expressed concern Wednesday: "This is a serious matter. We will do everything we can, and together with the Travel Industry Council, seriously look at this matter to protect our reputation as a shopping haven in Hong Kong."

TIC has launched three new measures curbing coercive tactics to make customers buy and unlicensed guides. One of the regulations requires tour agencies to make clear declaration on tour itineraries that tour guides are not permitted to coerce visitors to shop. The TIC also intends more frequent inspections at shops and tourist attractions.

Tung also suggested the government distribute more awareness pamphlets at shops and attractions frequented by mainland tourists, in addition to the distribution at border control points.

Win's remained in operation on Wednesday but refused to comment on the incident. JW Jewellery Outlet also continued to receive customers and said it had never forced tourists to shop.

Chen's daughter, who was in Hong Kong to attend her father's funeral, vowed to hold the responsible parties to account.

"It's a tragedy that can be avoided. My father wouldn't have died of heart attack like this if the tour guide's attitude weren't so bad," she said.

She said Chen had been looking forward to the trip to Hong Kong. "And he planned to visit Taiwan and then Europe," she said, before breaking down in tears.

Chen, 65, was an elite table tennis athlete in the 60s and had won championships at world games.

Tang Chengcheng, one of his students, described him as a nice person but a very strict coach. "We're all saddened," he said.

China Daily

(HK Edition 06/03/2010 page1)