Shanghai Street View: Trapping Tourists
This week’s Street View takes us to the Shanghai tourism circuit, where several recent headlines are spotlighting the high ticket prices we pay for many of the city’s most famous attractions. This particular story seems to surface every time a major holiday approaches. In this case an unusual triple-header of holidays is coming, starting with a 3-day vacation for the 70th anniversary of the end of World War 2 next week, followed closely by the Mid-Autumn Festival and the October 1 National Day.
I’ve written previously about this phenomenon, though every time it seems like ticket prices are higher than the last time. But this time I also have some added perspective of how Shanghai compares to other cities, following my own summer travels to Yunnan, Inner Mongolia, Sweden and Britain.
I’ll detail some of my findings shortly, but will first admit I was surprised to discover that many of the European tourist spots I visited are just as pricey as their Chinese counterparts. Prices are usually a bit cheaper in my native US, where the government plays a bigger role in making sure that everyone can access many major museums and scenic spots without overly burdensome ticket costs.
Still, the huge gap between living standards in China and the west makes the high Chinese prices often seem quite unfair. Tickets in Sweden and Shanghai may cost the equivalent of $25 for similar-level attractions, but the proportional cost is much higher for Chinese tourists due to their much lower incomes.
From a broader perspective, expensive tickets are just one manifestation of a two-tiered set of Chinese pricing standards that has emerged in the last 20 years. While many products and services are still quite cheap, often due to low labor costs, prices for other items like plane tickets, computers and tourism tickets are almost identical with western levels.
The issue was back in the headlines this week when media reported that 61 Shanghai tourist attractions will offer half-price tickets for one week from September 12 to 18, as part of the month-long Shanghai Tourism Festival. Participants include some of the city’s most popular attractions, such as the Oriental Pearl TV Tower and the Science and Technology Museum.
No Holiday Promotions
Somewhat ironically, the promotion won’t fall on any of the previously mentioned 3 public holidays, when demand will be highest. That’s probably because none of these sites wants to lose the big money it would get from the large visitor volumes on any of those holidays.
That more practical side of this issue was reflected in another headline that saw the Oriental Pearl TV Tower announce a price hike of about 10 percent starting next March. That scheme will see all ticket prices rise by 20 yuan ($3), from the current rates of 160 yuan and 220 yuan.
Based on my China travels these last 2 months in Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang and Yunnan, the 200 yuan level seems to be the latest accepted price range for major attractions like theme parks, scenic spots and buildings like the Pearl Tower. Second-tier attractions cost a bit less but still aren’t cheap, often costing between 40 yuan and 100 yuan.
I always thought the Chinese level was high, but was quite surprised to find equally high levels for major attractions on my recent trips to Sweden and Britain. During my travels, a visit to a Stockholm museum about the 1970s pop music group Abba and Britain’s Blenheim Palace where Winston Churchill was born both cost the equivalent of $25-$30.
Cheap Tickets of Bygone Days
Ticket prices were quite different when I first came to China in the 1980s and the average Chinese earned 100 yuan or less a month. Back then a double-tiered system existed, whereby Chinese visitors paid very small fees of often less than 1 yuan, while foreigners paid much higher prices to visit the exact same place.
We foreigners obviously didn’t like such a system, but at least it did hold a certain logic. After all, most of us were earning far more than our Chinese peers. Many of us were quite happy when this double-tiered system was abandoned in the 1990s, though we were less thrilled when ticket prices quickly rose to levels that were equal to and sometimes higher than comparable western attractions.
There don’t seem to be any easy solutions on this issue, though Shanghai is certainly taking some good steps by making many of the city’s museums free or very reasonably priced, similar to what’s done in my hometown of Washington D.C. and in some other big global cities like London. At the end of the day, it really does seem strategically smart to offer reasonable prices for major attractions, both for local and out-of-town visitors. Doing so not only makes these places more affordable, but also creates a more welcoming and friendly image for a place like Shanghai with international aspirations.
