Camping in a hotel is not a joke in China's hottest travel destination of Hainan, as a hotel on the tropical island offered tent-rooms to cope with the travel boom during China's Lunar New Year festival.

"Compared with the price of 2,680 yuan (US$392) for a standard room in the hotel, a tent house priced at 580 yuan a night is a fair choice in the travel season," said Li Xiangxin, a tourist staying in the tent hotel room in Sanya, a coastal resort city on the island province.

He introduced that the room has nearly everything necessary for a standard hotel room, like an independent toilet, beds, TV, a closet and a frig.

The provincial holiday and travel coordination bureau reported on Wednesday that the province welcomed 100,000 tourist arrivals on Wednesday, which was the highest daily record since the week-long Spring Festival holiday started on Saturday.

The province has been affected by cold air since Wednesday, when the daily high temperature was only 16 degrees Celsius. However, the chill forecast to linger to Friday has not affected the province's booming tourism.

The holiday travel rush had also driven up cost for hotel accommodation in the province.

The average price for a single night stay at five-star hotels has reached a whopping 10,000 yuan a week before the Spring Festival, which fell on Feb. 14 this year.

The cheapest room at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Sanya is going for 18,400 yuan, while the most expensive is 34,500 yuan per night. Prices for a room at the Hilton Sanya Resort range from 11,138 yuan to 16,048 yuan, according to ctrip.com, a leading travel website.

A survey on Hainan's 21 hotels showed they accommodated 8,703 travelers on Wednesday, as compared with 6,101 travelers on Saturday.

(Xinhua News Agency February 18, 2010)