MCT Approves 11 Provinces and Municipalities to Pilot Insurance-Based Payment of Tourism Service Quality Deposits
From July 2021 to February 2022, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism (MCT) successively approved 11 provincial culture and tourism departments — Hainan, Shandong, Shanxi, Hebei, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Qinghai, Tianjin, Beijing, Hunan and Gansu — to pilot the use of insurance in place of cash or bank guarantees for tourism service quality deposits.
To implement the requirements of the Notice of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism on Strengthening Policy Support to Further Support the Development of Travel Agencies (Wenlü Shichang Fa [2021] No. 60) — helping travel agencies cope with operational difficulties, effectively lower operating costs, and promote the full recovery and high-quality development of their business — the MCT has, since July 2021, successively approved multiple provinces to pilot the use of insurance in place of cash or bank guarantees for tourism service quality deposits.
According to the approval documents published by the MCT, as of February 2022 a total of 11 provincial culture and tourism departments had been approved to pilot insurance-based payment of tourism service quality deposits. They are listed below in chronological order of approval:
- Hainan (Wenlü Shichang Han [2021] No. 142, July 2021) source
- Shandong (Wenlü Shichang Han [2021] No. 268, August 2021) source
- Shanxi (Wenlü Shichang Han [2021] No. 269, August 2021) source
- Hebei (Wenlü Shichang Han [2021] No. 412, September 2021) source
- Jiangxi (Wenlü Shichang Han [2021] No. 413, September 2021) source
- Shaanxi (Wenlü Shichang Han [2021] No. 414, September 2021) source
- Qinghai (Wenlü Shichang Han [2021] No. 415, September 2021) source
- Tianjin (February 2022) source
- Beijing (February 2022) source
- Hunan (February 2022) source
- Gansu (February 2022) source
All of the above approvals in principle approve the pilot work plans submitted by the pilot regions, and require implementation in strict accordance with Wenlü Shichang Fa [2021] No. 60 — strengthening organizational leadership, improving working mechanisms, formulating supporting policies and fulfilling primary responsibilities, and promptly studying new situations, solving new problems and summarizing new experience. Using insurance in place of cash or bank guarantees for deposits helps reduce the capital tied up by travel agencies and ease operating pressure.
(This article is compiled from the series of approval documents publicly released by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism; links to the original approvals are given in the list above.)