A tour guide in Tianjin, China, got into hot soup after a video of her berating her tour group loudly for not spending enough at a tour stop went viral online.

She was found to be operating without a licence, and is facing a fine of up to RMB30,000 (S$5,545).

The video

7月19日，天津一女导游强制购物，因52名游客只花了900元训斥游客：“你花钱你叫上帝，你不花钱你就是狗屁！”要求游客买到2000元才能出发。文旅：你现在可真是我的上帝！祖宗！ pic.twitter.com/SMuzZBfhMh

— 吴文行wenxingwu (@wuwenhang) July 19, 2024

In the video, the guide could be heard complaining that the entire bus of 52 people "had only spent RMB900 (S$166) in total" at the tour stop.

"I even reminded everyone at the exit to just buy an item or two, if not I won't be able to account for this. Yet some of you still left without buying a single thing. What's wrong with all of you?" she said.

The guide also said that the group "was old enough to know better" and they had "brought shame to Taiyuan people", the city where the tour was from.

"If you spend money, you are God. If you don’t spend money, you are just dog's fart! ” she berated them.

The guide then instructed those who had not purchased anything to return to the tour stop and "spend RMB1000-2000 (S$184-368)" before the whole group would be allowed to proceed to their next destination.

The video has gone viral since it was shared online.

One clip of the incident, shared to X, has been viewed more than 986,000 times as of Jul. 22.

Authorities intervened

Subsequently, Tianjin's Culture and Tourism Bureau caught wind of the incident and investigated the matter, according to China Press and CCTV.

They confirmed that the incident took place at about 10:30am on Jul. 19, during a four-day trip to Beidahe and Tianjin, which was organised by a local travel agency.

The tour started in Taiyuan city, where the tour guide surnamed Deng began leading the group.

"During the tour group's trip to Tianjin, Deng showed an unacceptable attitude and used inappropriate language to coerce the tourists into spending, which caused displeasure," the bureau said.

Authorities also found that Deng's tour guide certification had expired on Sep. 9, 2023, and was ultimately revoked as she did not apply for a renewal.

As such, the bureau said it would fine her up to a maximum of RMB30,000 (S$5,545) and confiscate her profits from that tour.

Not the first time

It is not the first time tour guides in China have come under fire for their methods to coerce tour groups to spend more.

In 2015, a tour guide from Kunming had her licence revoked after threatening to cancel the group's next stop if they did not spend at least RMB3000 (S$554) each, BBC reported.

And in April, 37 Chinese tourists were locked up by their tour guide in a mattress store in Yunnan, and forced to buy products there if they wanted to leave, VnExpress reported.

Authorities fined the tour guide, who did not have a valid licence, and also placed the travel company under investigation.

This has widely been understood to be a systemic issue in China, according to China Daily.

In order to offer cheap trips to tourists, tour agencies in China typically cut costs by not signing labour contracts with tour guides and imposing additional fees on them.

As such, many of these guides are heavily dependent on commissions from tourists' shopping to pay the bills.

Top image from @wuwenhang / X