On Jul 22, 11:18 am, tuna <tu...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> http://www.chinapost.com.tw/s****ts/detail.asp?id=165423&sY=olympics/2...
>
> Beijing hotels re****t low bookings
>
> By Joelle Garrus, AFP
> Monday, July 14, 2008
>
> BEIJING -- Rooms are going begging one month out from the Beijing
> Olympics with hotels re****ting low
>
> er-than-expected advance bookings and crossing their fingers for a
> late influx of tourists.
>
> After being warned that an accommodation crunch was likely during the
> Games, Beijing went on a hotel building binge after winning the right
> to host the Games in 2001 -- and now the opposite appears to be in
> prospect.
>
> With few exceptions -- notably some niche hotels in Beijing's old
> quarter -- hotels are in fierce competition to attract Olympic
> customers.
>
> So far the luxury sector has come off best with top hotels achieving
> 75 percent booking rates while four star hotels are less than half
> full and bookings for three-star hotel rooms are running at 30
> percent, according to the Beijing Tourism Bureau.
>
> Only 10 percent of rooms in the more modest tourist hotels are booked,
> it said.
>
> The boutique hotels that have recently begun to emerge in what is left
> of Beijing's old city seem to be acquitting themselves well in the
> intense pre-Olympic struggle for customers. They offer traditional
> courtyard accommodation in old Hutong, the lanes that once connected
> up the fabric of old Beijing.
>
> Hotel proprietors were expecting to make a killing during the Olympics
> and room charges have more than quadrupled in the run-up.
>
> Home owners were also hoping to cash in on Olympic fever with some
> deciding to offer their apartments for rent to visitors at a
> significant premium.
>
> Three-bedroom apartments that normally rent for around 6,000 yuan (US
> $880) are on offer for 1,500 yuan a day during the Aug. 8-24 Games.
>
> "We were told there would be a lack of beds so property owners got rid
> of tenants and upped the rent for the Games period. Or if they were
> living in the apartment themselves, they decided to move out so they
> could rent the space," said Song Zhi, who helps run the accommodation
> service lodgingatbeijing.com.
>
> Song offers apartments for all budgets including premier locations
> near the main Olympic venues. "But at least for now, supply exceeds
> demand," he said.
>
> The head of the Beijing Tourism Administration, Zhang Huiguang, said
> that Beijing has 336,000 hotel rooms with 660,000 beds.
>
> Administration officials say that the Games are expected to attract
> between 450,000 and 500,000 overseas visitors, in addition to 1.2 to
> 1.6 million Chinese visitors from outside the capital.
>
> However, expectations concerning the number of overseas tourists could
> prove optimistic.
>
> Some travelers may already have been put off by early re****ts of huge
> tourist numbers expected to flood an already congested city. Others
> may have been discouraged by diplomatic tension between China and the
> outside world earlier this year over issues including its handling of
> the unrest in Tibet.
>
> In addition, re****ts about heavy handed Olympic security measures and
> a tougher policy on giving visas to overseas applicants may have
> further discouraged potential tourists.
>
> Evidence that tourism has been falling off was clearly visible in May
> this year at some of China's top tourists sites. Parking lots normally
> impossible to find a space in were half empty at Mutianyu, one of the
> top sites at the Great Wall just outside Beijing.
>
> Faced with falling bookings, European airlines Air France and British
> Airways have been running special promotions to attract tourists to
> their China routes, while the French firm has also been forced to
> suspend several weekly flights.
Not all that surprising. The Chinese Communist Party doesn't just
obsess over the possibility of Olympic athletes making some careless
observation about the continuing military occupation of Tibet.
*Nobody* is allowed to go *there*. Some foreign travelers just don't
seem to care that much for the prospect of getting disappeared or
tortured if they were to slip up and say the wrong thing. Go figure.
--
Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.
Albert Einstein
|
