Mainland tourists can complain to home travel watchdogs starting next year to report feigned products they bought in Macau as travel authorities launched a nationwide campaign to offer "trustworthy shopping" in the city.

The campaign started just days after officials from the Macau tourism bureau came to Beijing on Saturday to report a dispute between mainland tourists and Macau tour guides and police to the National Tourism Administration.

Mainland travelers will receive a reply within 12 days for possible compensation or to exchange or return purchases after their home commercial and industrial supervision bodies delivered complaints to counterparts in Macau, Beijing News reported today.

The campaign was launched by the Chamber of Tourism, a body under the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, and the Consumer Council of the Macau Special Administration Region yesterday, the report said.

About 1,300 shops across Macau have been offered the title of "Honest Shop" to assure consumers that they are trustworthy, said Alexander Ho, President of the Executive Committee of the council.

Residents in Shanghai and Beijing have already been offered access to report unpleasant experiences or scams while in Hong Kong and Macau to home authorities. They can also file complaints to tourism watchdogs in the two special administration regions, the report said.

Travel authorities in Macau have been busy trying to limit the damage to its image among mainlanders after Macau Daily News reported on December 6 that riot police had been sent in to calm a furious dispute between 126 mainland tourists and their Macau tour guides.

The mainland tourists, from Tangshan City, Hebei Province, accused the guides of trying to force them to pay for activities not on the schedule and threatening to abandon them without food or accommodation.

A fist-fight started between the tourists and the tour guides. It eventually involved about 30 riot police, who were brought in to calm the eight-hour dispute, according to previous reports.

(Shanghai Daily December 18, 2007)