ĐÀ NẴNG — Central city Đà Nẵng’s tourism department has distributed 5,000 leaflets in Chinese, promoting a code of conduct for tourists at airports, stations, destinations and hotels, besides resorts and public areas.

Vice-Director of the department Trần Chí Cường told Việt Nam News that the code of conduct, issued in Vietnamese in January, aimed to warn Chinese tourists what they should do or not do while touring the city.

He said the code of conduct has been sent to travel agencies that deal with Chinese tourists.

Cường said the code had been printed following a series of incidents in the city recently in which some illegal tourist guides (Chinese nationals) presented a distorted view of the history and culture of Việt Nam during a tour of the Linh Ứng Pagoda and Mỹ Khê Beach in Đà Nẵng.

Last week, the city fined six Chinese nationals for operating illegal tourist services and for violating local laws.

According to the department, at least 60 Chinese guides were working illegally in the city, and most of the Chinese travel agencies that dealt with Chinese tour groups disguised their operations with a Vietnamese licence, as directed by their Chinese managers.

The city’s tourism department revoked the business licence of a local travel agency for nine months, after one of its Chinese tourists burnt Vietnamese notes at a downtown bar in the city.

The central city hosted 600,000 Chinese tourists in the first half this year, an 83 per cent increase in comparison with last year. Chinese tourists comprised a quarter of all tourists visiting the city.

The city’s Party Secretary Nguyễn Xuân Anh said the city did not discriminate between Chinese tourists and other foreign tourists, but the city would fine visitors who violated the law or committed any wrongdoing.

The city plans to establish a tourism police force as a pilot project to boost security for tourists and the tourism sector in the 2016-2020 period.

Đà Nẵng hosted 4.6 million tourists last year, of which 1.25 million were foreigners.

The city has opened two tourist information centres at Đà Nẵng International Airport’s national arrival terminal, which would provide free maps, brochures and information about hotels and travel and tour agencies. — VNS