Regulations have to be enforced, not only on ceiling of hotel rates

File photo of Sanya [Provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

SANYA IN SOUTH CHINA'S HAINAN PROVINCE is a holiday paradise in winter because of its warm climate and good seaside location. In order to prevent overcharging of tourists during the Spring Festival holiday, the local government set a price ceiling of 6,000 yuan ($874) a night for hotels during the holiday period. However, the ceiling failed to do its job. Southern Metropolis Daily comments:

How can a local government department win trust from the people it governs? The answer is easy: Honor its words and do what it says.

It seems the local price administration in Sanya failed to do this. It did something good by setting a price ceiling of 6,000 yuan per night for local hotels during the Spring Festival period, but did not enforce the restriction. Browse any hotel-booking app and you would find more than 100 hotels whose prices take the "ceiling" as the starting rate during the holiday.

None of the hotels has received any punishment yet for breaking the rules, and that incident hurt the people's trust in the administration, even the local government in Sanya as a whole. With its administrative order becoming nothing but a scrap of paper, the local price administration in Sanya will no longer be trusted.

Of course, the government department needs to draft its orders so as to make them more executable. In the case of hotel prices, the local administration of commodity prices should break the possible price alliance among hotels and promote fair competition in the market, instead of simply setting a ceiling that is illusive.

Actually, Sanya has more problems than speculative prices of hotel rooms. Every year during the Spring Festival period, there is news of tourists being cheated even bullied by local businesspersons, yet the local law enforcers seldom take any action until the cases become the focus of nationwide media attention. The local government in Sanya must work hard to solve all these problems.

As a major pillar industry of Hainan, tourism is the largest contributor to the economic growth of the province. But its healthy, sustainable development will not be possible without a fair, regulated market. We hope the relevant government departments in Sanya will better enforce the law and regulations so as to better protect the legal rights and interests of tourists. That's not only for the benefit of tourists, but also for Sanya's long-term development.