China has blacklisted four tourists for “uncivilized behavior” after they created a stir at the Bangkok airport by singing Chinese national anthem to protest against an eight-hour flight delay.
The four were punished and blacklisted on the record of “uncivilized tourists’ behavior,” the China National Tourism Administration said.
A flight delay at the Bangkok airport earlier this month led to dissatisfaction and uproar among Chinese tourists, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
The four tourists behaved badly, inciting other tourists to disobey public order at the airport which severely tarnished the image of Chinese people, it said.
A video, which went viral on the social media, showed the four tourists from Chongqing and Chengdu in southwest China singing Chinese national anthem in protest over the delay of the flight.
They will stay on the “bad behavior record” blacklist for two to three years, the CNTA said. While it does not bar the four tourists from traveling by flights, they can be denied bookings by travel agencies, airlines and will be part of records of police and customs.
CNTA also vowed to investigate bad behavior involving Chinese tourists and punish offenders. Outbound tourism is booming in China thanks to rising disposable income, with roughly 97.3 million passengers traveling overseas in 2013, according to official statistics.
Last year, the number of Chinese tourists travelling abroad increased by 19.5% year-on-year to 109 million, nearly 13 times the level in 1998, topping the 100-million threshold for the first time, according to CNTA data
