Busan launches anti-price-gouging campaign around Gwangalli ahead of fireworks festival

[Financial News] After lodging prices around Gwangalli and Haeundae were found to have surged ahead of the Busan Fireworks Festival on the 7th of next month, Busan City moved to crack down on price gouging. 
Busan City said on the 22nd that it had held the “Fair Pricing and Friendly Service Campaign for Lodging Facilities Ahead of the Busan Fireworks Festival” with relevant agencies around Gwangalli Beach on the afternoon of the 21st.
The campaign was organized to prevent excessive price hikes taking advantage of increased demand for lodging during the fireworks festival, as well as inconveniences at lodging facilities, and to create an environment where tourists can visit Busan with confidence. 
Participants in the event included the city, the Busan Tourism Association, the Busan branch of the Korea Lodging Industry Association, and officials from Suyeong-gu, Haeundae-gu and Nam-gu.
The participating organizations first shared updates on each agency’s efforts to stabilize lodging rates at the Suyeong-gu Living Culture Center and discussed ways to work together to reduce inconveniences for tourists. The city explained its measures to stabilize rates at tourist lodging facilities, the status of guidance and inspections at general lodging establishments, and plans to respond to illegal activities related to lodging.
They then visited lodging establishments around Gwangalli Beach and held an on-site campaign encouraging fair pricing and friendly service.
The distributed information materials outlined practices including refraining from excessive lodging-rate increases and setting reasonable prices; providing advance information on rates and terms of use; preventing unilateral reservation cancellations and unreasonable demands for additional fees; and providing good customer service while maintaining clean, hygienic rooms. 
The city also plans to use its own lodging-rate monitoring program to analyze price trends at accommodations near the fireworks festival venue. The program can compare lodging rates on the day of the festival with those on the Saturdays before and after it to assess the level of price increases during the festival period. 
Based on the monitoring results, the city plans to identify lodging establishments that maintain reasonable rates and consider providing incentives, such as promotional support. 


[email protected] Kwon Byeong-seok Reporter