Fujian province has passed a local standard for the Classification and Evaluation on Service Quality and Credit of Travel Agencies and plans to enact the rule on May 1, 2009.

The rule stipulates the conditions, and the evaluation and management rules for service quality and credit rating of travel agencies. Under the rule, travel agencies are classified into three classes which are rated from AAA as the lowest to AAAAA as the highest.

It is understood that travel agencies that are involved in leasing illegal tour buses or organizing tour groups to visit gambling venues, or whose tour groups have casualties, will not be allowed to apply for evaluation. And those that have already been evaluated will lose their rating qualification.

There are currently 708 travel agencies in Fujian province.

(China Hospitality News March 27, 2009)