Olympics led to drop in Beijing tourist numbers

The number of visitors to Beijing plunged during the Olympics, according to Chinese state press sources.

The Beijing Times reported that the city's tourism administration recorded 708,000 domestic visitors checking into rated hotels in the capital during August, down 41.7% on the same month in 2007.

The number of international tourists fell by 7.2% year-on-year with 389,000 overseas guests checking into Beijing hotels during August.

The newspaper did not give reasons for the fall in tourism, but China's concern over disruptions to the Games, including terrorism and anti-government protests, led to a raft of new regulations on travel to the capital.

Red tape introduced ahead of the Games made it harder for foreigners to get visas and domestic travel groups faced a series of obstacles in coming to Beijing.

Besides stepped-up checks on highways and at airports and train stations, local tour agencies were required to arrange policemen to accompany large groups of fans coming to Beijing.

Many travellers complained that such regulations swayed them to stay away during the Olympics.

The Beijing Times said the number of Hong Kong tourists checking into the capital's hotels in August was down by 16.4%, while Taiwan travellers were down by 57.3% from August 2007.

In the first eight months of 2008, 2.53 million overseas tourists checked into Beijing hotels, down 8.9% from a year ago, the newspaper reported, adding that during the same period, 8.1 million domestic travellers checked into the capital's hotels, down 3.8% over the first eight months of 2007.