The China National Tourism Administration ("CNTA") has recently issued the Measures for Tourism Administrative Licensing (the "Measures"), with effect from May 1, 2018.
The 50 articles in the Measures are organized into eight chapters, including the "general provisions", "implementing organs", "application and acceptance", "examination and decision", "hearings", "archive management", "supervision and inspection" and "supplementary provisions". Major amendments introduced by the latest Measures, compared to its previous versions, deal with the applicable subjects and the title of the measures, the implementation of tourism administrative licensing, the supervision and inspection of tourism administrative licensing, etc. In particular, with regard to the implementation of tourism administrative licensing, the Measures set out requirements on the standardization and the development of information technologies, adding that carrying out the tourism administrative licensing shall be guided by the licensing standardization, to advance the development of the online examination and approval platform, and advocate handling, examining and approving tourism administrative licensing items online. Meanwhile, the Measures lay down requirements on administrative licensing services, providing that tourism authorities shall prepare the guide to tourism administrative licensing services, and establish and practice seven systems, including the information publication system and the one-time notification system.