Further investigation ongoing after Marriott questionnaire incident

SHANGHAI, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Shanghai Municipal Tourism Administration Thursday night summoned Marriott International representatives in the city after the hotel chain listed Tibet, among other parts of China, as an independent country in a mail questionnaire, the administration announced on Friday.

The administration ordered Marriott to conduct a thorough inspection of all the content, publish the investigation result in a timely manner, and apologize to the public.

Those held accountable for the incident should be punished, the administration said.

The administration emphasized that all hotels in China must abide by Chinese law and respect the Chinese people's feelings.

Representatives of Marriott said that they have realized the seriousness of the incident, and will cooperate with the investigation.

Marriott sent out a mail questionnaire to Chinese members Tuesday morning, which listed Tibet, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan as options under the question "Which country are you from?"

The cyberspace administration and market supervision bureau of Huangpu District conducted interviews with the hotel company's representatives in China late Wednesday. And the cyberspace administration of Shanghai further ordered Marriott to shut down its Chinese website and app for a week on Thursday night.

Marriott suspended the questionnaire late Wednesday and apologized twice on its Weibo account Wednesday and Thursday.

Marriott has around 270 hotels with nearly 100,000 rooms in China.

China National Tourism Administration issued a statement on Thursday urging hotel and tourism corporations to make a thorough inspection on their websites and apps, to prevent similar incidents. Enditem