[Photo provided to China Daily]

Chen Shun, vice-governor of Southwest China's Yunnan province, launched a personal, off-the-record inspection of the province's tourism industry before Spring Festival, and reportedly was "deeply" shocked by what he found. Thepaper.cn commented on Saturday:

Home to abundant tourism resources, Yunnan province, as Chen discovered during his private tour, has some undesirable practices in its tourism industry. According to Chen, the group of tourists he was among were lured into a local souvenir shop and forced to buy what was on display. They were even not allowed to leave until they had purchased enough.

Chen is not the first senior official to embark on such a "secret" inspection. Two years ago the China National Tourism Administration sent nine inspection teams to a number of regions, Yunnan included, and urged them to keep such forced shopping at bay. But unlike his colleagues who had previously inspected the local tourist attractions, Chen was not identified during his tour because he only took office in November.

Many argue that the blatant violation of tourists' interests is already known and such "secret" inspections by leading local officials are uncalled for. But is that actually the case? Yes and no. It is laudable that leading local officials want to find out for themselves what is happening in the local tourism industries. But their findings will make little difference if they are not taken seriously by those whose job it is to enforce market order and if the travel agencies are not held accountable for their illicit activities.

That said, extra efforts are called for to improve the implementation of executive orders and find out why they are not fully complied with.