Over the past National Day holiday, some 7.9 million tourists flocked to the city for sightseeing, shopping or having fun. But few of these visitors chose to experience Shanghai with the recently-launched government-backed one-day city tours.

The Shanghai Spring Travel Agency saw fewer than 10,000 travelers taking its one-day city tours during the eight days. The other officially-recognized company conducting one-day tours, the Shanghai Tour Bus Center, had few passengers as well.

Officials have told local media that the competition from unlicensed travel agencies was fierce and that unlicensed operators had staff wearing exact copies of Shanghai Tour Bus Center uniforms and approaching tourists the minute they stepped from their taxis or out of subway exits.

One month ago tourists coming out of the Lujiazui and Hongqiao Railway Station metro stations were being blasted with loudspeaker announcements advertising city tours and deluged with leaflets promoting one-day city tours.

A girl calling herself "Pepperly" recently shared online her personal experiences after taking one of these heavily-promoted tours, which took her to a shop in Hongkou district as part of the sightseeing. Although she was not forced to make any purchases, she bought a pretty piece of jewelry there. The "gold" setting started to lose its shine within days of the purchase.

The Shanghai Statistics Bureau has reported that in the past year about 8 million overseas visitors and 230 million domestic visitors arrived in Shanghai. Tourism is an obviously lucrative market and in an effort to regulate the market and safeguard tourists, the city's tourism authorities launched campaigns three weeks ago to crack down on unlicensed tourism companies.

Not as advertised

When the Global Times met Huang, a visitor from Shandong Province with his wife and child, he had just finished a one-day tour that included Lujiazui, the Bund and the City God Temple. The tour was organized by a small company, the Haohao International Travel Agency.

"The four-hour tour was not as good as the advertising had described it, frankly speaking," Huang said. "But we did get to see major attractions on both sides of the Huangpu River so I will not formally complain about the company - anyway that is a lot of trouble."

This is the second time Huang and his family have visited Shanghai. "We first came two years ago during the World Expo 2010, but we were in a hurry then and just had a quick look at the city."

Huang has a special connection to the Lujiazui area dating back 20 years and he said the area was one of his must-see experiences for his Shanghai visit. "I enjoy playing the stock market, and everyone knows that China's first stock exchange was in Lujiazui. It is still working today and dealing with my stocks and shares. As well there are many famous skyscrapers."

Huang outlined his family's day in town. They caught metro Line 2 to Lujiazui and originally had no intention of joining a group tour, planning to walk about the area with a map to guide them. But after picking up some leaflets they changed their minds and joined a tour.

They paid 200 yuan ($31.82) for a tour that would take them to the Oriental Pearl TV Tower, the Shanghai Municipal History Museum and the sightseeing tunnel from the Bund to Lujiazui.

Huang bought the tickets at 9:30 am and soon afterwards, with a group of 30 other tourists, they were taken to the Jinmao Tower. The others had bought their tickets from three or four different agencies, and one lady said she only paid 180 yuan for the tour - which left Huang feeling a little cheated.

They were told that they were being taken to the Jinmao Tower instead of the Oriental Pearl TV Tower because the queues for the TV Tower were too long. The tour guide did not mention that admission to the TV Tower was 150 yuan per person but it only costs just 100 yuan to visit the Jinmao Tower. They were not offered a refund.

The tour actually lasted just two hours. "The guide walked us to three venues in Lujiazui, and then took us to the Bund. That was it!"

Illegal operators

Yao Leye is a spokesperson for the Shanghai Tourism Bureau. He told the Global Times: "For some time we have studied the one-day tour market in the city and we have found that many of the tour companies in Lujiazui are unlicensed and are operating illegally."

Yao said the crackdown would run for a long time, not just over the tourism festival period (September 15 - October 6). "The problems with these unlicensed tour companies include fraud and improper business activities so we will take our time and ensure that the crackdown is effective. We need to coordinate the activities of several different government departments including the police, and industry and commerce bureaus."

The bureau has appointed the Shanghai Spring Tour and Shanghai Tour Bus Center as the official operators of one-day tours in the city.

The Shanghai Tour Bus Center is promoting a range of city tours that include visiting Lujiazui and the Bund for 230 yuan - an outing that takes in the Jinmao Tower and the Oriental Pearl TV Tower. As well it offers one-day tours to the city's suburbs and a half-day tour of Lujiazui costing between 120 and 300 yuan.

A Shanghai Tour Bus Center official surnamed Fan told the Global Times that business for the first week after the service was launched had not been very good and there were no more than 10 people taking the tours each day.

"We don't make any money with these tours, to be honest. Our company loses about 60 yuan or so for everyone who takes one of these tours taking into account the costs of labor, running the buses and admission tickets. But we are working with the authorities to provide a quality service for tourists."

The Global Times noted few people handing out tour company leaflets in and around the Lujiazui subway late last month, but some small tour companies are still employing touts. More than 20 tour touts can be found daily around the ticket office at the Shanghai Tour Bus Center, just 20 meters from Exit 1 at the Lujiazui metro station. If the touts spot anyone looking like a tourist or heading to the bus ticket office, they quickly push their leaflets onto them.

The bus center's Fan said that she had no answer to the problem of the touts. For most of the time she was the only official stationed there and she couldn't be calling police all the time to take action against them.

"What I can promise tourists is quality and service," Fan said. "Though our prices are 20 or 30 yuan higher than the unlicensed companies, we never swap the attractions and we offer 18-seat buses that transport the groups from the beginning to the end of the tours."

But Fan admitted that tickets for the bus center tours had to be bought at the Lujiazui office, even though the company has another five outlets throughout the city. As well people cannot join the tours at a later stage if they arrive late for the start.

The tourism bureau's Yao Leye said the crackdown needed more time to prove its effectiveness. He said the authorities were trying to increase media coverage of the official city tours, and encouraged visitors to call 962020 (there is an English service provided) to get the latest tourism information.

Tourist texting

In 2009 China's CCTV reported that hundreds of unlicensed tour companies were operating in Beijing, charging 300 yuan but only taking tourists to a few sightseeing venues and doing deals with jewelry shops to encourage visitors to spend their money on overpriced goods.

Over the past three years, the Beijing authorities have staged several crackdowns to bring order to the city tourism market and to wipe out the unlicensed operators. The authorities also arranged with China Mobile to send text messages to tourists arriving in Beijing reminding them to use officially-recognized tour companies.

Yao Leye said the Shanghai authorities are exploring the use of modern technology to alert tourists of the dangers of unlicensed travel agencies, and he hoped that soon the city would be sending similar text messages to visitors.

There are other options for tourists as well but sometimes the Chinese are not informed about these. The Big Bus tour has a good reputation among foreigners. First appeared in the People's Square, the open-top double-decker buses have been running since 2010. But few Chinese are aware of it.

A young couple from Beijing said they had enjoyed Big Bus tours in Dubai and London but had not heard that the service was available in Shanghai. They suggested more media coverage to include this, although they quibbled a little over the fare. "The prices for the upper deck and the lower deck seats should be different - obviously the view from the top deck is going to be better, but they charge 30 yuan for all the seats," the couple said.