HAIKOU, March 18 (Xinhua) -- A high-ranking official in south China's Hainan Province pledged Thursday that they would make great efforts to improve local tourism market.

Vice Governor Tan Li told a press conference for the Boao International Tourism Forum, scheduled to open Saturday in Sanya, a tourist resort in Hainan.

"It's a fact that Hainan drew criticism over its high hotel room prices during the Spring Festival, and that the hotel room prices did jump too much," said Tan.

Some five-star hotel room prices stood above 10,000 yuan (1,464 U.S. dollars) per night during the Spring Festival season in cities like Sanya.

"Hainan will exert efforts to clean up its tourism environment through the whole year of 2010," he said.

"The government has been taking a series of measures including cracking down on hotel price overcharging and rocketing home prices. The island will show up in a brand new image in the May 1 International Labor Day holiday ," he said.

The forum has attracted more than 2,000 people from tourist sectors worldwide, who will exchange their views in boosting tourism amid the global financial downturn.

Sponsors of the forum included Hainan Provincial government, the National Tourism Administration and the United Nations World Tourism Organization.

Hainan became a province and also China's largest special economic zone in 1988, enjoying preferential development policies.

The island boasts year-round tropical weather, beaches, forests and diverse ethnic cultures.

The central government announced Jan. 4 in a guideline that it aimed to build Hainan into a top international tourist destination by 2020.