Tourists in Sanya check seafood prices in front of a restaurant on February 2, 2012. Photo: CFP
Nicknamed China's Hawaii, the country's southernmost province Hainan has been endowed with just about everything a vacationing snowbird would want: beautiful, white sand beaches, palm trees, lush vegetation, plenty of amenities and fun things to do by the sea.
Yet many of the nearly half-million tourists who flocked there over the Spring Festival holiday were left feeling like the goose that is expected to lay too many golden eggs.
They complain of outrageous prices for sky-high airplane tickets, being held hostage by over-priced hotels and scammed by local eateries, food vendors and even pedicab drivers.
During last month's Spring Festival nearly 490,000 vacationers visited Hainan's second largest city, Sanya, a tropical paradise that is fast becoming known as a tourist trap. They poured 3.32 billion yuan into the city's local economy which almost doubled in size during the holiday week.
While hundreds of tourists were venting their outrage about Sanya's money-grubbing tourist industry on China's microblog Weibo, the local government added insult to injury by reporting on its Weibo that it had received "zero complaints" from the hundreds of thousands of guests the city had hosted.
That set off another firestorm of complaints, like the one Luo Di posted on his Weibo telling the story of how a Sanya seafood restaurant charged nearly 4,000 yuan ($634) for three unspectacular dishes. Within 24 hours Luo's post was reposted 40,000 times, helping create a tsunami of online complaints about holiday rip-offs.
Overcharged by thousands
One posting expressed outrage at being charged 8,800 yuan for a night's stay at a hotel that had nowhere near the numbers of stars to justify such a fee. Another Weibo user said his day was ruined at breakfast when he was charged 110 yuan for a cup of warm milk. Yet another wrote about being overcharged by a taxi driver who demanded 400 yuan for a short trip to a nearby scenic spot at Dadonghai beach.
Even tourists who shied away from shady seafood establishments that apparently don't list prices on their menu, were often taken for a ride. One young couple, who asked a taxi driver to take them to a local grocery store to buy food they could make themselves, was taken across town to a souvenir shop that was owned by the driver's relative. They later discovered a grocery store two blocks from the hotel.
The Sanya Government seemed to realize its exaggerated "zero complaints" message was being held in the same regard as the local swindles and apologized on January 30.
Fleecing tourists is not new to Hainan but its notorious reputation is growing. An online survey conducted by People's Daily shows 9 out of 10 respondents say they had been swindled in Hainan.
Hainan isn't alone in being accused of taking advantage of tourists. Nearly 95 percent of the 1,500 respondents to a poll by the Global Times said had felt ripped-off, tricked or overcharged during their travels around China's tourist areas.
While some experts blame both Weibo and the media for sensationalizing stories of swindles in Sanya, the tales of trickery have struck a chord with millions of Chinese who are finally affluent enough to enjoy travelling during the holidays.
"Rather than making plans to better develop tourist sites and other tourism facilities, we are simply taking advantage of the opportunity to earn quick money," said Lang Hsien-ping, a Hong Kong-based economist, during a television talk show about Sanya's growing pains.
Before the Central government designated Hainan as a special economic zone in 1987 the island was very poor. The vast majority of locals were simple farmers or fishers. In 2000, 80 percent of the population lived in rural areas and the island is the ancestral home to 38 ethnic minorities.