Travel agencies will be held liable for unauthorized disclosure of theirs customers' personal information, according to the latest Judicial Interpretation from China's Supreme People's Court which took effect Monday.

The Interpretation was a "first of its kind" in the Court's civil law category, which explicitly stressed service providers' obligations to protect their customers' personal information, said Sun Jungong, the court's spokesperson.

It also clarified several debatable issues, including prohibitions on forced-shopping, transfer of customers between agencies and differentiated charge rates based on travelers' ages or vocations.

Protecting the customers, however, was not the only goal for this Interpretation. "It also safeguards service providers' rights by clarifying the boundary of their obligations, " added Sun, "It is designed to promote the healthy development of that industry."

China's travel industry has seen rapid growth in recent years with an annual income of 1.29 trillion Yuan (193 billion U.S. dollar) in 2009, according to the National Tourism Administration (NTA).

Over 20,000 travel agencies were registered to NTA by the end of 2009.

(Xinhua News Agency November 2, 2010)