OffBeat Buzz

The Olympics Games, while being the ultimate picture of grandiosity in sports, is also seen as a source of major spike in tourism to the host country. However, not so for China.

The Chinese had a program and the works needed to inflate tourism — the theme itineraries of “Beijing Historic and Cultural Heritages”, scenic spots like the Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven and the Summer Palace, mega projects as the Bird’s Nest, the Water Cube, and the Olympic Park. Yet, far from causing a tourist boom, the 2008 Olympic Games actually caused a drastic fall in the numbers of visitors to the Chinese capital.

In August 2008:

Beijing hotels received a total of 708,000 guests from other areas in China, 47% less than last year.

The number of foreign visitors was only 389,000 arrived, a 7.2% decrease from last year.

Visitors from Hong Kong (the richest city in China) to Beijing dropped by 16.5%, while those from Taiwan (nearest foreign country) dropped by 57.3%.

And the eight months in 2008 prior to the Olympics? Not really a pretty picture, either:

Beijing saw 3.8% less internal tourists and 8.9% less foreign visitors.

The media has not come out explicitly with any explanation for this disappointing performance, but insiders put the blame on several factors including strict security, asphyxiating controls, heavy restrictions on movement and the strong police presence. Do you think these ‘reasons’ were powerful enough to override the passion to watch any sport or the Olympics?

Well, the media, the Chinese government and the organizers might have their own theories, but I believe that the following images from Beijing may have had something to keep the tourists at bay:

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Tags: Beijing Olympics

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 11th, 2008 at 5:10 pm and is filed under Believe It OR Not. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.