Tourists balk at hotel fee for ecological protection
By Bob Yang |
August 6, 2012, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
KUNMING City government is planning to charge an ecological protection fee from each tourist to treat the heavily polluted Dianchi Lake, stirring strong protests from both tourists and experts.
The plan, which is waiting for final approval to be legalized, stipulates that anyone who stays in hotels in six counties and districts around the lake must pay 10 yuan (US$1.57) a day for water treatment at the lake, the largest freshwater lake in southwest China's Yunnan Province and a hot tourist spot.
"It is obviously unfair because many of the hotel dwellers are not tourists. ... They might also on business trips," said Hou Mingming, an environmental science and engineering professor with the Kunming University of Science and Technology.
The plan attracted stronger protests from tourists, complaining on the Internet that the plan is ridiculous.
"The city government should impose the fees on factories beside the lake who are the true culprits behind the pollution," said Xiao Jianmin, one of the tourists.
Others said they would rather not travel to the city to avoid being charged what they consider an unfair fee.
"Local hotels also don't want the new plan because the fees will be added into the room rate," a boss of a small hotel near the lake said.
The government of Yunnan Province has approved the draft of a Dianchi Lake Protection Rule to establish an "ecological resource protection fund." But detailed plans on how and whom to charge still need approval from the government, an official with the Dianchi Lake Protection Bureau told Xinhua news agency yesterday.
It could raise up to 1.2 billion yuan a year, the city says.
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