"Tourist Complaint Handling Measures" will be implemented starting from March 15th.

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism announced the "Tourism Complaint Handling Measures" on the 11th, which will be implemented from March 15, 2026. A relevant person from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism introduced that in recent years, with the rapid development of China's tourism industry and the widespread application of information network technology, there have been significant changes in the forms and channels of tourism complaints. It is necessary to revise the "Tourism Complaint Handling Measures" issued by the former National Tourism Administration in 2010, to guide local cultural and tourism authorities to effectively respond to new developments in the tourism market, efficiently handle tourism complaints in accordance with the law, and provide support for addressing prominent issues in the tourism market and promoting high-quality development of the tourism industry. The measures stipulate that tourists can complain to tourism complaint handling agencies about the following matters: if they believe that the tour operators have violated the terms of the contract; if the tourists have suffered personal or property damage due to the fault of the tour operators; if the contract cannot be fulfilled or fully fulfilled due to force majeure, leading to disputes between tourists and tour operators; or any other infringement of the legitimate rights and interests of tourists. In addition, the measures further improve the jurisdiction rules for tourism complaints, adding designated jurisdiction content on top of the original territorial jurisdiction and hierarchical jurisdiction, and clarifying the handling methods when multiple entities have jurisdiction over the same tourism dispute, in order to promote the efficiency of tourism complaint handling. The measures also further compress the time limit for handling tourism complaints and simplify the procedures, providing stronger guarantees for tourists to lawfully protect their legitimate rights and interests.