Seoul to crack down on price gouging at hotels near fireworks festival

The Seoul Metropolitan Government will conduct intensive inspections of tourist hotels near Yeouido ahead of the Seoul International Fireworks Festival on Sept. 5, an event that draws more than 1 million visitors and has become one of the city's signature autumn festivals. From Tuesday through Thursday, Seoul and the tourism departments of Yeongdeungpo-gu, Mapo-gu and Yongsan-gu will carry out joint on-site inspections, focusing on whether hotels are complying with mandatory room-rate posting requirements.

The inspections will pay particular attention to compliance with the revised enforcement rules under the Public Health Control Act, which took effect July 14.

Under the previous rules, accommodation operators were only required to post rate schedules at the front desk. The revised rules also require them to display room rates on any online interface they use for bookings.

Seoul will oversee the joint inspections, while the tourism departments of Yeongdeungpo-gu, Mapo-gu and Yongsan-gu will each draw up and carry out inspection plans for tourist hotels within their jurisdictions.

Separately, Seoul plans to monitor room rates listed for Sept. 5 on major online travel agency sites from Tuesday through Sept. 4.

If monitoring finds rates deemed excessively high compared with the previous weekend, the city plans to urge hotel industry associations to take corrective action and, if necessary, conduct additional inspections through the relevant district offices.

Last year's fireworks festival was held in late September, but this year's edition has been moved to early September to coincide with the chuseok holiday period and peak foreign tourist arrivals. Organizer Hanwha plans to deploy about 4,700 safety and crowd-control personnel on the day of the event and the preceding evening, including 1,200 Hanwha employee volunteers.

"The Seoul International Fireworks Festival is one of Seoul's most iconic events, drawing countless domestic and foreign tourists every year, so we cannot allow the unfair practices of some accommodation operators to tarnish the spirit of the festival or Seoul's image as a tourist destination," said Jo Seong-ho, director of Seoul's tourism and sports bureau. "We will conduct thorough on-site inspections to create a sound accommodation environment where tourists can enjoy the festival with peace of mind."