Contact:
Newsfox Desk
Phone: + 43 - 1 - 811 40 - 319
E-Mail: editor@newsfox.com
| Pressbox | 
|
Beijing (pte038/23.05.2003/15:50) - The Beijing tourism industry is expected to post losses of up to 4.8bn dollars in 2003, largely as a result of the SARS epidemic.
According to the China Centre for Economic Research (CCER) http://ccer.pku.edu.cn at the University of Beijing, the SARS epidemic could produce the biggest crisis in the city's tourism industry since 1989.
General income from tourism is expected to drop by between 60 and 70 per cent this year compared to the year before, while domestic tourism is predicted to decrease by 30 per cent.
The Beijing tourism office reports that only 190,000 tourists visited the city in May during the traditional May holidays, which the government had shortened from a week to five days. This is a decline of 95 per cent.
Over 150,000 foreign tourists have cancelled trips they had booked with Beijing travel agencies, with 78 per cent fewer foreign tourists visiting the city in April than the year before. Beijing's three-star hotels have enjoyed an occupancy of 65 per cent in past years, but they are currently only booked to seven per cent capacity.
(end)
|
|
