China monitors behavior of its citizens as tourists

BEIJING, April 7 (UPI) -- China will monitor the behavior of its citizens as foreign tourists, after incidents of embarrassing behavior in other countries have surfaced.

The China National Tourism Association (CNTA) said records of alleged incidents, such as misbehavior on planes, damaging public facilities, ignoring social customs at foreign destinations and engaging in prostitution or gambling will be kept by provincial authorities and could influence future legal and banking credit decisions.

The measure comes after alleged incidents that include Chinese tourists engaging in sexual harassment in Japan, a flight from Nanking to Bangkok on which two Chinese passengers created a disturbance and another flight, on which tourists scalded an attendant and threatened an explosion aboard the plane.

In an announcement, the CNTA said "tourism reflects on the country and the people's image," adding more "social supervision" of tourists was required.

Zhang Hui, employed in Shanghai by a multinational company, told the newspaper China Daily, "I never make trips during public holidays because I can imagine the chaos, the garbage ..., the commotion in places that should be peaceful, and disturbances caused on trains or flights. However, I'm not sure whether this new measure will work, just like no-smoking signs in public areas. And I'm still not clear how the behavior of Chinese tourists will be supervised worldwide."