Recently, with the arrival of the peak tourist season, domestic scenic spots have seen a new round of "price hikes." Many well-known attractions, including Fenghuang Ancient Town, Wuyuan Scenic Area in Jiangxi, Mount Emei in Sichuan, and Slender West Lake in Yangzhou, have raised their ticket prices, with the highest increase reaching 167%. Netizens lament that scenic spots are becoming increasingly "unaffordable," while experts say that scenic areas should not rely too heavily on ticket revenue.
Scenic spot tickets see a new round of "price hikes"
With the approach of Qingming Festival and May Day, spring tourism is heating up, and so are scenic spot ticket prices. A statistics report by China News Service's finance channel found that recently, a number of scenic spots, including Fenghuang Ancient Town, Wuyuan Scenic Area in Jiangxi, and Mount Emei in Sichuan, have raised their ticket prices.
Among them, the all-inclusive ticket price for Wuyuan Scenic Area in Jiangxi has been increased from the original 180 yuan to 210 yuan, a rise of 17%. The peak-season ticket price for Mount Emei in Sichuan has been adjusted from 150 yuan to 185 yuan, an increase of 23%. The ticket price for Longdong Scenic Area in Zhangjiajie, Hunan, has been adjusted from 80 yuan to 100 yuan, up 25%; Baofeng Lake Scenic Area has gone from 74 yuan to 96 yuan, a 30% increase; and Dehang Scenic Area has risen from 60 yuan to 100 yuan, a 67% hike.
In addition, Slender West Lake in Yangzhou began implementing a peak-season ticket price of 150 yuan per person starting March 1, an increase of 30 yuan, or 25%. Starting April 1, the sightseeing bus at the Juling Scenic Area of Mount Lao in Shandong switched from small vehicles to buses, raising the price from 15 yuan per person to 40 yuan, a staggering 167% increase.
Netizens lament that scenic spots are becoming increasingly "unaffordable"
Aside from mainland China, scenic spots in places like Hong Kong and Taipei have also joined the price hike trend. For instance, the adult one-day ticket price for Hong Kong Disneyland increased from 399 Hong Kong dollars (about 319 RMB) to 450 Hong Kong dollars (about 360 RMB) starting March 27, a rise of about 13%. The general admission ticket for the National Palace Museum in Taipei rose from 160 New Taiwan Dollars to 250 New Taiwan Dollars, a 56% increase.
In addition to direct price increases, many scenic spots have adopted an "all-in-one ticket" system that bundles tickets together, which has been criticized as a disguised price hike. For example, Fenghuang Ancient Town in Hunan implemented a 148-yuan all-in-one ticket system starting April 10. Hangzhou Songcheng Scenic Area also adopted an all-in-one ticket pricing system, with the combined entry and performance ticket priced at 280 yuan per person, a 20-yuan increase; the ticket for the Rotten Apple Amusement Park was adjusted to 150 yuan per person, a 30-yuan rise.
Faced with these direct or indirect price hikes, netizens have lamented that scenic spot tickets are getting more and more expensive, truly making them "unaffordable." A report previously released by the China Tourism Academy showed that 89.2% of netizens believe that scenic spot tickets are "too expensive, and ticket expenses have seriously affected their enthusiasm for travel."
The "ticket economy" should transform into an industry economy
It is worth noting that in September last year, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) announced two batches of scenic spots that had reduced their ticket prices. According to statistics, a total of 174 tourist attractions across provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities saw price cuts, with an average reduction of about 30%. However, most of the discounted attractions were "less popular" sites, with only 14 5A-level scenic spots, such as Mount Wudang, the Three Gorges Dam, Yellow Crane Tower, Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, and the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, implementing price reductions.
In fact, domestic scenic spot ticket prices have long exceeded those of some foreign attractions. According to a report by China Securities Journal on April 1, the basic ticket price for the core area of Zhangjiajie’s Wulingyuan Scenic Spot is 245 yuan, while the permanent exhibition ticket at the Louvre in France is only 10 euros, and the entrance fee for hiking in Yellowstone National Park in the United States is just 12 US dollars.
Regarding this, Wang Yanyong, a professor in the Department of Tourism Management at the School of Economics and Management, Beijing Jiaotong University, and director of the Tourism Development and Planning Research Center, said in a recent exclusive interview with China News Service's finance channel that although China’s tourism industry has been advocating moving away from the "ticket economy" and building a tourism industry chain, direct tourism revenue is still given too much weight. Future transformation and upgrading should make full use of the six elements—food, accommodation, transportation, entertainment, shopping, and travel—to shift from a ticket-based economy to an industry-based economy.