Rise in ticket prices dampens tourists' enthusiasm

Silver Cave in Guangxi province, a noted scenic spot in China, will raise ticket price in next few months. [File photo]

Several scenic spots in China have raised their ticket prices recently. Even some tourist attractions on the "price trusted" list by China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) plan to raise their prices as well. This has led to worries among those who travel.

According to Chinese media, noted scenic spots like the villages of Wuzhen in Zhejiang province, Maijishan Grottoes in Gansu province, Silver Cave in Guangxi province and Shanghai Wild Animal Park have developed schemes or are in preparation to hold public hearings to raise ticket prices by 10 percent to 60 percent in the next few months.

In recent years, ticket prices at tourist attractions in China have generally become more expensive than in other countries. In order to reform ticket prices across the nation, the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) announced in 2007 that scenic spots wouldn’t be able to make ticket price adjustments in the next three years.

However, many scenic spots' ticket prices have been rising every three years. In 2012, most of the tourist attractions finished their last price adjustment, so they are about to get a new round of price rises next year.

In the past eight years, ticket prices kept breaking records. According to a report by the Tourism Research Center in the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in May, up to the end of 2014, the average price of all the 186 5A-level scenic spots in China was 112 yuan ($17.5).

Although Chinese tourists complain that it's too expansive to travel in the country for a long time, tourist attraction administrators consider the price rises really reasonable.

In a telephone interview with China National Radio, a female customer-service worker of Oriental Pearl TV Tower in Shanghai confirmed that they planned to raise the ticket price by 10 percent in 2016.

"The cost of everything in the country is increasing all the way, so it's quite normal for us to raise the ticket price as well. Anyway, a ten percent rise in price is not that much for tourists," she explained.