Expert calls for better tourist safety awareness

Travel agencies and tour guides should be required to give safety briefings to their customers, a tourism industry expert said this week.

"The tourism industry has developed so fast, coupled with so many uncertain factors, we must improve safety awareness to better protect tourists," said Liu Yuanchen, director of the Tourism Development Institute at Shenyang University in Liaoning province.

The past decade has seen a dramatic boom in China's tourism industry. But people's safety awareness is lagging, Liu said.