Sanya hotel reservations up by 50% after festival

According to an official of Ctrip.com's hotel department, hotel prices in major tourist cities like Guilin and Lijiang fell after the Spring Festival an average of 25%; while hotel reservations are up by 50%.

Hotel reservations in Guilin and Lijiang also fell. However according to some travel agencies hotel reservations in Sanya has risen by 50% compared with those during the Spring Festival period. This is a very different pattern from previous years and could have been the result of high hotel prices in Sanya during the Spring Festival.

By the end of February 2010, the average hotel reservation price for three-star, four-star and five-star hotels in Sanya were 450 yuan, 650 yuan, and 1,300 yuan respectively; which was about 60% lower than prices during Spring Festival. This was also the case with flights to Sanya.

This difference has been compounded by the "white collar effect" which has become a major factor for post-festival travel. The number of tourists visiting Sanya in the first week after the Spring Festival was twice that of the seven-day holiday, and most of these were white collar workers who had postponed their travel until after the holiday week.