Chinese-speaking Vietnamese tour guides based in Da Nang have submitted a petition to city leadership noting their concerns regarding an increase in Chinese citizens offering unlicensed tours.
VnExpress reports that the petition was delivered last Wednesday amid a surge of illegal tours in the popular tourist destination. Under Vietnamese law, foreigners are banned from working as tour guides within the country, yet Chinese tour guides are common.
Local tour guides allege that their Chinese competitors also distort facts about Vietnam and make it difficult for Vietnamese guides to work. For example, according to the petition, an unlicensed Chinese guide told their touring countrymen that Vietnam still relies on China and has to pay tribute every year. Another said that Da Nang's My Khe Beach actually belongs to China.
One Vietnamese guide told the news source: "Chinese tour guides tell their tourists that the Vietnamese hate the Chinese so they shouldn't listen to what the Vietnamese guides say. When they're accompanied by Vietnamese guides, they speak in regional dialects such as those from Hangzhou, Chengdu, Guangdong or Nanning so we can't understand what they're saying."
The petition also stated that Chinese guides were taking jobs from Vietnamese workers, and that the Da Nang tourism department was ignoring the issue.
Tran Chi Cuong, deputy director of the department, said that the petition had been received but he denied the accusations within it. He stated that the government body has been investigating the subject, and has levied fines worth VND742 million (US$32,600) on illegal tour operators this year.
He also noted to VnExpress that the number of licensed local Chinese-speaking guides has increased dramatically this year, which may lead some guides to believe they are losing out to competition.
VnExpress shared that since January, 160 new Chinese-speaking licensed guides have hit the streets, bringing Da Nang's total to 620, while 200 other guides from other provinces are working in the city.
Da Nang is hugely popular with Chinese tourists, with 390,000 visitors from Vietnam's northern neighbor arriving in the city in the first eight months of 2017, up 16% compared to the same period last year, the news source shares.
[Photo via Vietnam Travel]
