Over 600 tourists affected as Luhuitou Square Yacht Marina shuts down

On January 14, after purchasing the tickets for cruise sightseeing, tourists headed to the yacht marina at Luhuitou Square to enjoy their boat trips before they found themselves embroiled in a dispute between the marina operator and the yacht companies.

Last year, a public berthing charge policy for the marina at Luhuitou Square was introduced for better management. Under the policy, the max berthing fee is 40 yuan per meter per day for each yacht.

Some companies complained that the marina belongs to the public and the government should consider the affordability to enterprises since the high berthing fee will cause a great burden to their yearly operation costs.

According to the Sanya Chengtou Company, the marina operator argued that the implementation of the berthing charge policy is based on the study of yacht marinas at similar domestic cities.

In addition, they issued a statement on January 10th that all yacht companies which failed to sign the contracts for yacht berth services with it will be not allowed to use the current berths and will be forced to suspend their commercial operations.