Hainan Island, China: A Travesty To The Good Citizens Of China

Let’s tell a story about how to utterly destroy the holiday plans of good, hard-working families. Your family holidays are a welcome and needed break from the daily hustle and bustle of life’s routine. Memorial Day. Fourth of July. Labor Day. The Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Year Season. All an important part of your life.

Now imagine waking up one morning to find that the $150 per night rate at the 5 star Newport Beach Hyatt or San Diego Sea World Marriott or the Hilton Resort Sanya was specifically priced during your family’s main holiday week at an outrageous, price-gouging, insulting $1100 per night. An American would say “Whoa dude.” A Chinese would utter, “Ai Ya!” The difference is: its real in China.  

How to comprehend it? To find an explanation? Immediately your brain cells start firing off, your mind sweeps for answers.  Perhaps financial Armageddon has finally arrived. The Euro has collapsed? Another Asian currency crisis? Another 911 attack, but worse? Maybe you run to check downstairs at the grocery store and find the prices of everything went up triple and all bank accounts have been frozen. How else can you explain such a disproportionate price increase? If we wake up to news on the TV that suddenly a hotel room rate is multiplied not just by double or triple, but six to ten times the normal daily rate, we wonder on the edge of panic, “What the heck else is going on with prices of other things? It must have some other meaning too!”

Indeed, our family holiday plan is utterly destroyed. In our budget, we knew airfares would be high. We knew there won’t be any discounts to snatch up.

But we didn’t expect to be raped in the name of national holiday spirit.

We grab the morning newspaper looking for crazy news, check the internet news sites, turn on the TV to Bloomberg or CNN expecting a breaking news announcement that our government just devalued our currency by 50%, California or Greece or Spain has officially announced bankruptcy, interest rates soared to 40% on worthless bonds, banks don’t allow us to withdraw our now worthless money, replaced our George Washington $1 bills with Goldman Sachs $200 bills. We would walk downstairs to the local grocery store maybe to find that all prices had been marked up triple.

How else could we possibly explain a sudden six to ten times increase in the price of a hotel night?

No no my friends.

Relax! Be happy!

Its just Chinese New Year on Hainan Island.

What a way for greedy bureaucrats to ruin a tropical paradise. What an unforgivable, shameful, travesty of greed and stupidity far beyond the excuse of “its Chinese culture”. In the same way, good American citizens are now hostage to the corrupt, elite Wall Street bankers, the good people of China, the hard-working citizens of China are insulted and cheated by greedy hotel owners and government officials who somehow get together and decide:

“Hey, this year, let’s raise the Chinese New Year holiday hotel rates six to ten times normal, Ok? During past years, we normally raise the rates triple but this year, the economy is even better, so let’s raise the rates much much higher. The hotel will only be 70% occupied, which will be easier to handle, and the profit will still be much higher. Happy guests we respect are not most important. Charging them outrageous prices is a very good idea. Ok?”

And somehow they agree. These leaders, these decision makers on whom the good citizens of China depend upon for their quality of life, who have only this one single Chinese New Year holiday week together each year, all agree that taking this price-gouging policy to new heights is a good idea. </blockquote>

In China, because of media censorship, we need to make sure we write content which is in support of the good of China, the good of Chinese people, Chinese families, sensible Chinese business practices and government effort to promote harmony, actions which promote harmony and do not cheat people. How do we judge this action? Does it promote harmony? Chinese families who wish to enjoy a nice holiday are outraged, not feeling community harmony.  Is it reasonable and sensible for the people of China? Certainly not.

The government seat of China in Beijing is proud to see this article. They agree with the content of this article because what the hotel operators did this year on Hainan Island, raising rates by six to ten times, was bad for China and her people. I am thankful to the government officials I know who encouraged me to write this article, to shame and embarrass the faces of Hainan that should be shamed for doing something so greedy and selfish for China’s reputation and character.

If we follow the same greedy logic as the hotel owners to raise rates six to ten times during the Chinese New Year holiday, then why don’t other operators also do the same for that week?

It is reasonable then that Petro China gasoline should be 49rmb per litre instead of 7rmb per liter, just for the holiday week.

It is reasonable that a McDonald’s double cheeseburger or chicken wing at KFC should be 42rmb instead of 6rmb, just for the holiday week.

It is reasonable that the taxi fare from the airport to Dadonghai should be 420rmb, instead of 60rmb, just for the holiday week.

It is reasonable that a car rental should be 2000rmb per day instead of 250rmb per day, just for the holiday week.
 
It is reasonable that the 148rmb ticket to enter the lovely Yanoda Rainforest or Nan Tian Hot Springs should be 900rmb each, just for the holiday week.

It is reasonable that the 15 minute taxi fare from Dadonghai to Sanya Bay to be 150rmb instead of the normal 20rmb, just for the holiday week.

Recently, a local two star, 200rmb per night Dadonghai hotel owner told me that her Chinese New Year rate was 1600rmb per night and offered me a whopping 100rmb agent commission for my guests who were flying in for the holiday.  I told her it was outrageous and stupid and shortsighted. She said “that’s what everyone is doing”  She didn’t say. “If I charge that much, I will get a bad reputation and anger my guests who won’t come back.” What kind of business thinking is this? Needless to say, I made other arrangements for my Hong Kong guests.

I started my sister travel-focused website, www.sanyaexpat.com,  over three years ago after my first holiday there. The very first article I wrote and posted was dated March 6, 2007. It was about the beautiful new boardwalk built along Dadonghai beach, still a lovely addition to Dadonghai beach.  Since then, this website has become much bigger and better than I ever expected with our little island making the front page of international mainstream news just two weeks ago. I am lucky and honored and today I share that honor with all the good people I know, proclaiming this story a mighty insult to the good, hardworking people of China, the greatest shame and travesty I have ever seen against Sanya, Hainan Island and the good citizens and families of China since first arriving here the summer of 2004. This shameful travesty is excused by and protected by what kind of “tradition” in China? Will it happen again next year?

Furthermore, we all need to realize that this embarrassment to Hainan and all of China’s reputation is a more important reason for Hainan to make the mainstream news. This outrage is the decision of a small group of people. Rich, narrow-minded people.

But China’s hard working families who wish to enjoy their annual Chinese New Year holiday are not a small group of insignificant people to be abused at the whim of greed; they are a country of 1.3 billion people, a country whose government has planned and executed wonderful and impressive progress to make China a much better place to live these past 10 years.

Here on Hainan Island, China’s only tropical island destination, we have a holiday family memory for all the wrong reasons. Let’s encourage the leaders to step up and never allow such a travesty of greed to happen again; or shall they also be regarded with just as much disdain as the rotten American elite bankers and politicians who have ruined the American dream.

Mario Cavolo is based in China for over 10 years. He is a professional speaker, writer and media event personality providing multinational and media industry clients with training, coaching, communication, market research and advisory services. Take advantage of Mario’s “on the ground” China insights by visiting www.mariocavolo.com, where you will find insightful articles and commentary on business challenges, communication, and global market advisory with a special focus on China business and culture.