On Saturday a tourist guide was assaulted by a group of brokers in the Central Highlands city of Da Lat after he refused to take his tourists to visit and buy products from the jam making facility the attackers work for.

>> Chinese products disguised as Da Lat specialties The victim, T.T.D, told police that he was taking a delegation of 140 tourists from Hanoi to check in at the Sammy Da Lat hotel at 2pm when three strangers approached and asked him, “Which jam making facility will you take your tourists to?” Upon hearing that D. would bring them to the Da Lat market, the men immediately punched him and used crash helmets to beat him on the head. The aggressive men also chased another tour guide before fleeing the scene, D. told police. The attackers were identified as brokers for the Hoai Nam and Bao Khanh jam making facilities on Nguyen Tu Luc Street. City police have arrested Tran Van Quang, 34, for his role in the assault while Tam and Hoang, his accomplices, have absconded. It is common for delicacy shops and souvenir stores in the tourism cities to have brokers approach newly-arrived tourists and invite them to visit their facilities. The brokers will receive commissions based on the money the tourists spend at the shops. At 4pm on the same day, when D. was taking the tourists to the city’s flower garden, the men appeared again and asked D. to bring his tourists to the Bao Khanh store. D. again refused, and had to run away when the men opened a second attack on him. Shops deny relation Quan confessed to police that he had attacked the tour guide, and that he, Hoang and Tam, all work for Hoai Nam and Bao Khanh facilities. However, the shops deny having employed them as brokers. “We don’t have any attendants who work outside the shop,” Bao Khanh owner Pham Thi Lan Huong told Tuoi Tre. Quang was previously fined for the same behavior in August, police said. Other tourist guides said they used to be threatened by the brokers if they did not bring tourists to jam making shops such as Hoai Nam and Bao Khanh. “I once took my tourists to a similar facility, and none of them bought anything due to the exorbitant prices and poor quality products,” a tour guide named T. from Ho Chi Minh City said. “The shop attendants and brokers cursed at us when we left the shop after buying nothing.” The products from such stores usually cause stomachaches to consumers, or easily become moldy, according to a director of a travel agency who requested anonymity.