Xinhua News Agency reported a Chinese citizen surnamed Li and 10 friends joined a five-day package tour to Thailand on January 31, 2006. However, the travel agent arranging the tour failed to confirm the seats on their flight as scheduled and left the clients waiting at Shenzhen Airport for 10 hours.

Later, the travel agent failed to offer meals as required in the contract and did not give an adequate explanation for changes the tour guide made to their schedule. The 11 tourists were stranded in Bangkok for six days and had to seek help from the Chinese Embassy.

Li lodged a complaint with Shenzhen's consumer-rights body upon returning from the tour. The group was given several thousand yuan in compensation for the poor service offered by the travel agent.

The consumer-rights body says Guangdong regulations stipulate a travel agent must sign a contract with tourists and offer services strictly in accordance with the contract. Agents will be ordered to pay compensation if they are found to have violated a contract and caused losses to tourists.

Economics :VN consumer spending in rapid rise

Consumer spending should reach 840-860 trillion dong (Bt1.83 trillion to 1.87 trillion) by 2010, says the Vietnamese Trade Ministry.

For the past 10 years, the figure has averaged about 70 per cent of the country's gross domestic product per year, the ministry said, a high level compared with neighbours like Singapore (55.9 per cent), Malaysia (58.2 per cent) and Thailand (67.7 per cent).

The ministry predicted the ratio would remain at that level through 2020, because the nation gave priority to promoting investment and exports. Retail goods will account for about 80 per cent of consumer spending from now to 2010, with average expenditure per capita expected to grow about 10.5 per cent annually.

By 2010, average consumer spending per capita will be 657,800 dong, climbing to 1.1 million dong in urban areas and 537,400 dong in the countryside.