Impact of Economic Downturn on Employees (2015/10/14) 

MR YIU SI-WING: President, in September this year, the number of registered Mainland inbound tour groups dropped more than 20%, it would be inevitable for some travel agents dealing exclusively with this type of tour groups to encounter difficulties in business and even close down. Although the TIC stipulates that tourist guides must be remunerated and prohibits tourist guides from making unreasonable advance payments, many members of the industry are concerned that some people may not abide by the law.
I would like to ask the Secretary if the authorities will proactively find out or even investigate whether non-compliance with the aforesaid requirements is serious, and at the same time offer recommendations to the TIC to prevent the livelihood of a large number of tourist guides from being adversely affected should there be waves of business 

SECRETARY FOR COMMERCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: President, since 2011, the TIC has received a total of 16 complaints about travel agents requesting tourist guides to make advance payments or bear costs unreasonably. Five of the cases were referred to the Compliance Committee under the TIC for follow-up and consideration. These five cases were related to the same travel agent which had requested the tourist guides to bear or make unreasonable advance payments for the cost of receiving Mainland tour groups and failed to remunerate the tourist guides concerned. The total amount involved was $650,000. The amount involved in each case ranged from $57,000 to $230,000. The travel agent was fined $33,000 for each case with 10 demerit points by the 

MR YIU SI-WING: President, what I have heard just now is that the authorities will not handle the matter until someone lodges a complaint. My supplementary question is, will the authorities proactively find out and investigate the seriousness of the 

SECRETARY FOR COMMERCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: President, at present, the TIC will handle the relevant case after it has received a complaint. So far, as I have mentioned earlier, a total of 16 such cases have been received and handled.