China Economic Review
Charting China’s changing economic terrain · Since 1990
Tourists flock to new "Olympic city"
August 3, 2009
Tourists from across China are surging into Beijing in the wake of last year’s Olympics, spurred on by the new look of the old capital.
"Most tourists came to feel the changes in Beijing after the Olympic Games. It is the new Beijing they are curious about," said Zhang Lingjie, deputy manager of the domestic department with the China International Travel Service head office.
About 85.4 million tourists visited Beijing in the first half of this year, an increase of 20.8% over the same period last year. Those travelers brought with them revenue of RMB127.1 billion ($18.6 billion) up 14.6%, according to statistics released by the municipal tourism authority. Just to remind you of one of the high spots of the games the illustration is of Zhang Juanjuan of China breaking the Republic of Korea’s 24-year stranglehold on the Women’s Individual event, claiming the gold medal with the last arrow of a riveting final against Park Sung-hyun. A great moment of the Games.
The strong growth of visitors is mainly thanks to a prosperous domestic tourism market, as 83.6 million of the tourists who came to Beijing, an annual increase of 21.4%, were from the Chinese mainland.
On the downside, only about 1.8 million tourists from outside the mainland visited Beijing in the first six months of the year. January’s numbers dropped 29% which gives some idea.
The impact of fewer international tourists has affected Beijing’s four- and five-star hotels, which suffered "an especially low room occupancy rate."
Chinese Stock Information reported the city tourism bureau earlier set a goal of attracting 154 million tourists and RMB236 billion of revenue this year which is higher than 2008. Ambitious figures.