Busan fireworks festival sends hotel rates soaring

BUSAN — Some Busan hotels are charging up to four times their usual weekend rates for the night of the city's fireworks festival in November, as a run of major events pushes up prices around Haeundae and Gwangalli beaches this autumn.

A high-floor room at a three-star hotel facing Gwangalli Beach is going for 1.1 million won ($800) on Nov. 7 — the night of the Busan Fireworks Festival. A lower-floor room at the same hotel is priced at 800,000 won for that night. Both rates include wine for the night and breakfast the next morning.

By contrast, the same hotel charges just 280,000 won a night for two adults on the last weekend of October, with the breakfast and wine bundle not included.

Major events follow one after another in the southeastern port city: The Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) opens Oct. 6, the annual fireworks festival lights up Gwangalli on Nov. 7 and G-Star, billed as Korea's largest gaming expo, runs from Nov. 19 to 22.

Hotel price comparison site Trivago puts Busan's average nightly hotel rate at 157,098 won for October, up about 44 percent from 109,012 won in September, based on figures compiled Sunday.

Haeundae's biggest jumps come on Oct. 10, the first weekend after BIFF opens. At one five-star hotel, the lowest nightly rate on Trivago rises from 760,000 won on opening day to 1.09 million won on Oct. 10. A four-star hotel roughly doubles its rate over the same period, from 350,000 won to 710,000 won.

Two other five-star hotels in Haeundae increase from 630,000 won to 730,000 won and from 420,000 won to 610,000 won, respectively. 

Rates around Gwangalli are rising even faster ahead of the 21st Busan Fireworks Festival. When the JoongAng Ilbo checked with major hotels near Gwangalli Beach, sea-view rooms looking out on the fireworks were priced at three to four times the normal weekend rate.

At one three-star hotel in Gwangalli, a room that costs 240,000 won on Oct. 31 goes for 900,000 won on festival night for a double room with an ocean view. Even a city-view room with no view of the fireworks costs 500,000 won.

A four-star hotel in Gwangalli that charges about 210,000 won on Oct. 31 costs 980,000 won on Nov. 7 for an ocean-view room with breakfast. A room with a view of only half of Gwangan Bridge costs 770,000 won.

"About 40 percent of all our rooms are still available," a spokesperson for one hotel said.

Another four-star hotel in Gwangalli that usually charges around 120,000 won has put out a festival-night package with a room and meals for 719,900 won.

One Gwangalli hotel has held off on taking bookings at all because of the backlash over pricing. The hotel, where a weekend night normally costs about 160,000 won, is not accepting reservations for Nov. 7.

"There has been a lot of talk about raising room rates for the fireworks festival, so we plan to start taking bookings from mid-October, a month before the event," a representative of the hotel said.

Busan faced the same criticism in June, when K-pop megaband BTS performed in the city as part of its ongoing "Arirang" world tour.

A survey by the Fair Trade Commission and the Korea Consumer Agency found that the average nightly rate in Busan on the concert weekend was 433,999 won, 2.4 times the rate on the weekends before and after. Some businesses canceled confirmed bookings and resold the rooms at higher prices, and critics said the practice was damaging Busan's image as a tourist destination.

The Busan metropolitan government plans to send lodging businesses official letters asking them to refrain from price gouging ahead of BIFF and the fireworks festival, and to carry out intensive inspections.

The city has few ways to penalize hotels that charge several times their usual rates. Under the current system, authorities have little legal basis to crack down on a lodging business that posts its own maximum rate and charges no more than that.

"There is no legal standard or guideline for fair prices, so the central government is revising the relevant laws," an official at the city's tourism policy division said. "Until the law is revised, we will consult with the Busan lodging association to encourage voluntary price stability, and we are reviewing a plan to certify lodging businesses that keep fair prices."

"The industry is also concerned that a few cases of price gouging are damaging the image of all lodging businesses and of Busan tourism," the official said. "Ahead of the big festivals, we will carry out special crackdowns on price gouging at the district and county level."

BY LEE EUN-JI [[email protected]]