A mountain resort in Switzerland is launching special trains for unruly Chinese tourists to defuse tensions with other visitors, who complained of their noisy and rude behaviour.
Tourists visiting Mount Rigi in the Swiss Alps have become incensed with Chinese tourists who crowd the corridors for taking pictures from the train, while some other visitors even claimed to have seen them spiting on the floor, Swiss newspaper Blick reported.
Special trains are to be launched to avoid bad feelings between Chinese tourists and visitors from other countries owing to the huge cultural differences between them, the report said.
"Their (Chinese tourists) strong presence is a challenge," said Peter Pfenniger, chief of Rigi Bahnen, even though he accepted that the huge influx of visitors from Asia had brought the struggling railway company back on track.
To ameliorate tensions with Chinese tourists, who account for almost half of all foreign visitors to Mount Rigi, toilets are now cleaned more regularly and signs have been put up "showing how to use them correctly," it said.
The company is expected to offer around 20 special trains a week from September.
However, state-run Chinese newspaper Global Times reported that the criticism has been received poorly in China with netizens taking to social media to point out that increasing numbers of Chinese tourists were a good opportunity to help Switzerland's economy.
