Who are victims of rising ticket prices? (2)

Frequent rise in ticket prices highlighted the defects of the management system of the scenic spots.

"As we invested much in heritage conservation, environmental protection, scenic spots development and infrastructure construction, it will be difficult to operate if the ticket prices do not rise," said a principal of a 5A-class tourist attraction of China. With the increase of the number of visitors in recent years, the management costs also continue to grow. The rise of ticket prices can not only maintain a normal operation of scenic spots but also provide high-quality service to tourists.

In addition to the increase of operation and management costs, the sharp rise of ticket prices also highlighted unreasonable management system and product structure.

Wu Bihu, director of the Center for Recreation and Tourism Research, said that the operation of scenic spots is related with the construction department, the administrative department of cultural relics, the department of land and resources and the department of water conservancy. Different aims led these departments to compete for interests, resulting in price increase. The local government departments also take the ticket income as one of the important source of finance, which further exacerbate rise in prices.

From the ticket economy to tourism economy

According to resources, the ticket prices and policies of the national parks and public museums in the Europe and the United States are established by the culture departments and their affiliated public institutions. The related legislations restrain an arbitrary adjustment of ticket prices. The ticket prices of these countries are generally not more than 1 percent of the per capita monthly income.

The ticket receipts only account for a small part of the operation costs and other costs mainly are from government subsidies. For example, it needs 25 U.S. dollars to visit the Yellowstone Park of the United States by car. An annual card sells 50 U.S. dollars and can be uses repeatedly. It only needs six euros to visit the Roman Colosseum in Italy. The natural landscapes in Japan do not charge fees. Their operations mainly rely on financial subsidies.

Many countries have a low ticket prices. Compared with the ticket sales, they regard the positive influence of tourism to the quality of their people as more important and they are willing to attract more tourists to promote national culture and improve the overall development of the tourism industry. In addition to enjoy government subsidies, these scenic spots also make full use of their own resources to collect operating funds on the basis of protecting the culture of the scenic spots.

Read the Chinese version at http://paper.people.com.cn/rmrb/html/2012-05/10/nw.D110000renmrb_20120510_1-18.htm?div=-1