Don't forget requirements for inviation letters and/or hotel confirmations and proof of departure and such that make it much less convenient for tourists who aren't coming in a group. That alone could account for a lot.
Tourism Arrivals in Beijing Drop Significantly in 2013
Beijing huanyinged* fewer tourists from January to November, 2013, a drop of 10.3 percent year on year, China Daily reported Monday.
That's bad news for both tourism officials and Beijing businesses. The report by the Beijing Tourism Development Commission was quick to blame a strong yuan and a weak global economy in addition to pollution also being a concern, a sequential order that is likely prioritized in reverse for these tourists that are actually doing the staying away.
Beijing's 72-hour visa waiver program also fell short of expectations with only receiving 14,000 arrivals as compared to the anticipated 20,000, the report said. Our fair city seems specifically to have turned tourists off in 2013, as tourist arrivals in China as a whole were only down 2.5 percent.
Perhaps the most interesting statistic shown on a chart regarding the growth of inbound tourism between 2001 and 2013 is that 2008, the year when Beijing hosted the Olympic Games, was the worst year for local tourism in recent history.
Photo: Beijing2008.cn
*"Huanying" means "to welcome" (欢迎) in Putonghua.
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