Hotel room costs have skyrocketed in Hainan since China announced plans to develop southern island into a premier international destination.

Hainan's provincial government has responded by rolling out measures to stabilize hotel bookings during the holiday seasons.

Participants at the ongoing Bo'Ao International Tourism Forum in Sanya warn climbing hotel room costs will turn away tourists and dent the regional tourism industry.

He Hongguang, President of Timeshare Tourism Agency, said, "Expensive hotel prices during the Chinese New Year holiday season shocked many people. It is reasonable for hotels to increase prices during peak seasons. But high costs will damage the tourism industry if price fluctuation is triggered by speculative activities."

Zhu Zhongyi, Vice Chairman of China Real Estate Association, said, "To make Hainan an international tourism island, the region needs to have top basic infrastructure. This means the region will need to work on issues in its service sectors, including price reasonability and quality assurance."

The island's transformation into a tourism hot spot is expected to take years. But Hainan hotels have capitalized on this early, by increasing room costs since the start of this year.

Hainan's vice governor stressed the importance of striking the right balance between development and sustainability. He warned hotels' steep price hikes could ultimately jeopardize the island's long-term goals.

Jiang Sixian, Vice Governor, Hainan Province, said, "There is still a substantial gap between hotel prices in the peak and off-season. With little macro-control support from the government, we hope the problem can be solved by marketization. We hope overall hotel room costs will stay reasonable during the May Day Holiday."

The government has stressed Hainan's development into an international tourism destination should not solely benefit the wealthy.

It unveiled measures to keep hotel room rates stable at the beginning of this month. The island is also planning to launch an identification-based hotel booking system during the May Day Holiday this year to restrain speculative price hikes.

(CCTV.com March 21, 2010)