The China National Tourism Administration has announced that it has decided to refund part of the travel quality deposits to travel agencies to assist them in dealing with operational difficulties caused by, amongst other issues, the current international financial crisis.

However CNTA has not published the details of the percentage of the travel quality deposits that would be refunded and when this will be done.

The travel quality deposit in is a special fee paid by travel agencies and managed by the CNTA to guarantee the interests and rights of the tourists. CNTA collects 600,000yuan from international travel agencies for inbound tours business, and 1 million yuan for outbound tours. Domestic travel agencies pay 100,000yuan.

During SARS in 2003, CNTA and the Ministry of Finance required the tourism and financial management departments around the country to temporarily refund some of travel quality deposits to the travel agencies to help them get through the difficult time.

(China Hospitality News December 8, 2008)