Sanya limits the price of tourist rooms during Spring Festival, media: This practice can be followed by other regions.
According to the Hainan Special Zone News, the Development and Reform Committee of Sanya City, Hainan recently released a notice on the management of standard room prices for tourism hotels during the 2025 Spring Festival, which involves various types of standard rooms in Sanya’s tourism hotels, excluding villas, suites, travel rentals, and guesthouses. The management period is from January 28th to February 4th, 2025. According to the notice, the sales prices of standard room types in tourism hotels during the 2025 Spring Festival cannot be higher than the maximum price level during the past two Spring Festivals. There is no limit on the price decrease, and tourism hotel operators are free to determine specific sales prices.
The purpose of traveling during the Spring Festival is to seek happiness and relaxation, but high hotel costs often diminish this joy. As a popular tourist destination in China, Sanya’s hotel prices have “surged” during the Spring Festival, which has been a source of concern for tourists. Since 2015, Sanya has implemented a price limit policy for Spring Festival tourism guest rooms for ten consecutive years. From initially setting a direct price ceiling to the current flexible mechanism of “not exceeding the maximum price level during the past two Spring Festivals,” this change not only respects market rules but also actively responds to people’s livelihood demands – striving to avoid a simple and粗暴的”one-size-fits-all” price limit and find a balance between protecting consumer rights and promoting healthy tourism industry development.
Some may worry that price limits will interfere with market pricing freedom and affect the normal operation of the hotel industry. However, this is not the case. Sanya’s practice has proven that reasonable price limit policies not only do not hinder the development of the hotel industry but also promote healthy market competition. In order to attract customers, hotels will focus more on service quality and unique experiences, forming a diversified and differentiated competitive landscape. For example, a renowned resort hotel in Sanya has been able to maintain high occupancy rates and customer satisfaction even under price limit policies by improving service quality, adding parent-child activities, and creating themed restaurants. This shows that price limits do not mean restrictions on development but guide the industry to transform and upgrade to higher quality.
The reason why Sanya’s price limit policy has been able to continue for ten years and continue to be optimized lies in its legal support and smart management. On one hand, laws and regulations such as the Price Law provide legal basis for the price limit policy, ensuring its legitimacy and stability. On the other hand, local functional departments adjust their strategies in accordance with market changes, scientifically set price limits using big data analysis and other means, which not only avoids the disadvantages of a “one-size-fits-all” approach but also effectively curbs disorderly price increases. In addition, Sanya also focuses on information disclosure and public participation, encouraging tourist supervision, forming a regulatory system involving government, market, and society participation. This not only enhances policy credibility but also allows tourists to feel genuine care and respect.
The ten-year Spring Festival price limit policy reflects the wisdom of urban governance – the prosperity of the tourism industry should not be driven by short-term profits but should be based on sustainable development with long-term planning. In the era of “tourism plus,” it is expected that this practice of exploring the transformation and upgrading of the tourism industry through practical actions may provide reference for more places, further deepening the reform of tourism supply-side structural adjustment, improving tourism service quality, allowing every tourist to find their own poetic distance in their destination.
Behind the seemingly simple policy of limiting room prices during tourism holidays lies deep concern for people’s well-being, a profound understanding of market rules, and meticulous planning for urban development blueprints. This is an exploration of a dance between government and market, as well as a practice of win-win results for both people’s livelihoods and development.
