THE city’s high-end hotels and holiday resorts are expected to have a sharp increase in business during the Universiade. They will also gain valuable experience of an international event.

The opening and closing ceremonies and sports competitions across the city will attract large numbers of media staff and visitors from other parts of the country. The hotels, particularly hotels in Longgang, Futian and Nanshan districts, will be ready for an upsurge in customers.

Some of the 14 non-Olympic programs will be held on the east coast of the city and in its golf courses, which will also promote the development of hotels in the Nan’ao, Dameisha, Xiaomeisha and Guanlan areas.

International sports events are always beneficial to a city’s hotel industry.

During the Beijing Olympics, all 119 contracted hotels for the Games were booked out. Among these, 70 percent of the rooms were for government and organization officials, sponsors and judges, while 30 percent were opened to other visitors and guests. Most of these visitors and guests were foreigners coming to watch the Games and their reservation durations were mainly about one month. Some hotels remained full for three months after the Games.

Due to the sharp increase in demand, prices for high-end hotels during the Games increased by 4 to 10 times. However, increases for small and medium-level hotels were not as good as expected and some of the hotels even lowered their prices to attract customers.

The situation for hotels was similar during the Guangzhou Asian Games.

Unlike the Olympics and Asian Games, there will not be many global superstars at the Universiade as it is for unprofessional university students, so the event will not be as popular as the two Games.

Official visitors, such as government and organization officials, sponsors and high-end visitors, will stay at the 27 contracted hotels and prices for these hotels are expected to rise sharply during the Games.

Although rooms at these hotels may not be all booked out during the event, profits for the hotels will increase much more sharply than in previous years due to an increase in prices.

Hotels in coastal areas and golf courses will also face increases during the Games as staff at some of the programs will stay in the areas instead of the Universiade Village due to the long distance. However, prices of these hotels will be monitored by the government to prevent unreasonable hikes.

After the Games, prices at many hotels are expected to drop sharply. Among these, price drops for high-end hotels will be smaller than others, while prices for other hotels may drop by more than 70 percent compared with the peak time.

(Wang Yuanyuan)