Turn scenic spots into national parks

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(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-09-30 08:50

In run up to the National Day holidays, the country famous tourist attractions are raising ticket prices in droves, going up some 70 percent in extreme cases. In recent years, there have been recurrent price hikes despite repeated prohibitions. In order to address this problem once and for all, the government should replace all State-level scenic spots with national parks, says an article in the Beijing News. Excerpts:

Repeated attempts to keep down the increasing ticket prices at scenic spots have invariably ended in failure. In 2005, faced with periodic nationwide spike in entry fees, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) prescribed that a price adopted should prevail for, at least, three years. Subsequently, a national rectification of ticket prices managed to check soaring prices in 2008. Now released from four years of oppression, plus high expectation on profits of the long National Day vacation, tourist attractions can't wait to raise their ticket prices despite the NDRC's ban.

As a result, law enforcement should play a role in addressing this problem. National parks, as a kind of common benefit accessible to all, is prevalent in numerous foreign countries. Instead of placing a ban on increases in ticket price, authorities of these nations take on the maintenance and management of tourist attractions as a budgetary item, and keep ticket prices low to stimulate the tourism industry.

In order to make tourist attractions affordable for Chinese citizens once and for all, the government should declare all 187 State-level scenic spots as national parks, and thus root out profit making based on business control of the country's natural resources.

(China Daily 09/30/2009 page9)