How do we determine the price of the world cultural heritage
Http://finance. Sina. Com. Cn december 06, 2004 09:08 new kyoto
It is clear from the current reality that free access to the world cultural heritage is not possible. However, the exact price of the ticket is worth discussing。
It was reported that, following the findings of the “pricing expert commission” at the hearing, the programme identified several principles, including “prices reflect supply capacity and consumption levels” and “taking into account the psychological resilience of tourists”。
Professor zhou xiaozheng, faculty of sociology, people's university of china, said that according to the beijing city bureau of statistics, in 2003 the actual monthly wage for 4 million rural workers in beijing city was only $499, while the adjusted price of the tickets for the six sites was $460, which means that a peasant worker in beijing is going to visit the world's heritage sites, without eating or drinking for nearly a month, and can they afford it
If this is a “special case”, let's look at the rest of the population。
On 22 october this year, the national statistical office announced at a press conference held at the press office of the state council that the cash income per farmer in the country for the first three quarters had been $2110. So it is possible to calculate a monthly average of 234. 4 dollars — farmers have to pay two months to visit six sites in beijing。
What about town people? According to the national statistical office, the per capita income of chinese towns in 2003 was $8427. From this, we can calculate an average monthly income of $702. 2. • visiting six sites would also cost more than half a month of income。
In contrast to the prices to be adjusted, we do not really see how the price increases take into account the public's “consumption level” and “psychological tolerance” and come to the conclusion that “the six legacy sites' ticketing formula is generally consistent with the price levels proposed by the group of experts”。
The unit applying for the increase also gave one reason: the price of the beijing legacy ticket was “generally lower than the price of the world heritage site in the rest of the country”. Indeed, in the field, the price of tickets is higher than in beijing, or much higher。
However, the high price of off-site tickets did not justify the increase in beijing。
For, first, no one has given a positive “should be so” conclusion to the high fare in the field, in other words, if the criterion of “maximum cultural value” is taken into account, how can the high fare in the field itself be used as a model for self-learning? Second, beijing has a special legacy – a concentration of attractions, and tourists who travel to kyoto do not usually go to a single destination, just as the great wall is bound to descend into the palace. This “package”-style tour route is not available in the rest of the world’s cultural heritage visitors, and the price of the tickets is not too high, in terms of “silent sales.”。
If we really want to compare the fare, we suggest that we compare it with the foreign culture. According to xinhua, in many locations in egypt, local tickets are low (for the disabled also free), in france and russia there is a “low-price strategy” for park tickets, most tourist attractions in japan are free of charge, and all parks and museums in washington, d. C., are free of charge。
It is not difficult to draw the conclusion that “the fare is as low as possible” from the “worldly nature” of these cultural objects, even if we are not yet in a position to “internationalize”. After having acquired the meaning of “worldly” objects, it has become geographically more than just china, let alone beijing; from the audience, it is not just high-income, but all。
Since the country's economic development has a direct impact on the investment of protection, we might try to establish a system that links the price of tickets to the per capita income by setting a percentage that can float within the established percentage when public finance is insufficient; when public finance is sufficient, the price of tickets will be gradually reduced until free。
At present, only 5 per cent of the citizens of beijing are visiting the world heritage site in beijing, a small number of whom may not care about prices because of higher income levels, but where are the remaining 95 per cent of the expatriate population? What about low- and middle-income groups among outsiders
It would be sad if world cultural heritage became “luxurious” for high-income people。
