Crazy price for travel in Sanya
Source: Global Times [15:55 February 08 2010]
As the coming of the Spring Festival, the cost for living in a five star hotel rocketed and reached more than 15,000 yuan per day, and in some hotels it even exceeded 20,000 yuan, the latest quotation from the hotels in Sanya Bay of Hainan Province shows.
Such a price equals that of four to five days' overseas travel in certain countries.
According to the latest quotation, a five to six days deluxe tour to Japan during the Spring Festival is 12,000 yuan to 13,000 yuan, five-day tour to Singapore is about 7,000 yuan and a six-day travel to Phuket, Thailand is 7,000 yuan.
A man surnamed Li who just came back from Dubai said that living in the Burj Al-Arab, the seven star hotel just cost 15,000 yuan per day.
Generally, the crazy prices of the hotels in Sanya last from February 13 to 20. For instance, in the Ritz-Carlton, Sanya, the price for living in a deluxe seaview room on February 12th would be 2,560 yuan per day, but the price would rise to 18,000 yuan one day later.
According to the information from the Hainan government, the subscription ratio for the hotels in Sanya from February 15 to 18 has exceeded 85 percent, and the ratio in other major tourism cities including Haikou and Wanning is close to 50 percent, higher than previous years.
The driver behind the crazy price does not only include the investors' high enthusiasm to invest in Sanya, but also the value-added chain of the reserves of the rooms, a China Business News (CBN) report Monday said.
"For the current situation, besides the seasonal factor, the flooding of the house speculators who aims to invest in Hainan's tourism contributed to the rocketing of the prices," Xiao Baojun, responsible person from the Hainan Kang-Tai International Travel Service said.
Xiao added that some investors book the hotel rooms in advance and sell them in higher prices, so the subscription ratio now does not reflect the real travel situation and a substantial part of the rooms were ordered by the speculators.
Also, some travel agencies may buyout some high-end rooms and then sell to the travelers by themselves. And some travel agencies may order the rooms from the speculators, and sell to the domestic tour wholesaler and then to the travelers. The more middlemen there are, the higher the room price will be.
However, the CBN report said that the risks for the speculators and travel agencies are still very large and their losses will be great if they can not dispose the rooms they reserve.
Industry analysts believe that although the tourism market in Hainan appears optimistic, yet, the situation was caused by the investors or high-end travelers. The high hotel price is hardly accepted by common travelers.
And if those consumers can not accept the high price, the travel agencies may see losses due to insufficient customers.
In addition, the quality of the service offered in Hainan needs to be improved, Qu Jia, founder of Jiaqi Travel Agency pointed out. Some travel agencies may cheat the travelers together with some unlicensed cabs and guides. Also, most employees in the hotels have a low income and the service offered can not be ensured, according to a report of CBN.
Meanwhile, the high prices may push some customers to choose other destinations instead.