Beijing's Great Expectations Encounter Stunning Disappointments -- Visa
limits undermine Beijing's tourism hopes

International Herald Tribune

Visa limits undermine Beijing's tourism hopes

By David Barboza
Friday, June 20, 2008

BEIJING: The plush lobby of the Kerry Center Hotel in Beijing is usually
crowded with foreign guests this time of year, most of them lounging in
Centro, a hip bar, listening to jazz and sipping martinis, or queuing up
in the taxi line after power dinners at the Horizon restaurant.

But Thursday evening, Centro had only a sprinkling of guests in a hotel
whose occupancy rate is typically close to 100 percent during this time
of the year. Tonight, the duty manager said after tapping a few computer
keys, it stood at just 63 percent.

"I really don't know what happened," said Sun Yin, the duty manager.
"Something strange has been going on."

The problem, it seems, is that with the Olympics less than two months
away, China has been restricting foreign visitors from entering the
country in the hope of guarding against terrorist threats or unruly
visitors who might plot to disrupt the Games, which begin Aug. 8.

The government appears to be approving fewer tourist visas. Business
executives say they face new bureaucratic hurdles to visiting the city.
And hotels are being asked to give the government detailed information
about foreign guests.

The measures, combined with the tragic news about the powerful
earthquake in Sichuan Province last month, have already sapped tourism
in China and cast a pall over Beijing during what was supposed to be a
busy and jubilant tourist season leading up to the Olympics.

The high published rates for Beijing hotels during the summer and
difficulty getting Olympic tickets have also dampened expectations, even
though many five-star rated hotels say they are fully booked during the
Olympics.

Still, because things are looking so bad now, for a wide range of
hotels, many economists are beginning to doubt whether Beijing will get
the kind of windfall it was hoping for during the Games, which analysts
had once forecast would bring 500,000 foreign visitors and an extra $4.5
billion in revenue to the city this summer.

Instead, in the weeks leading up to the Olympics, Beijing hotels are
struggling to find guests; some large tourist agencies have closed for
the summer; people traveling here for seminars and conferences are
canceling.

Residents are also complaining that heightened security measures could
spoil what was expected to be Beijing's coming out party.

Indeed, after years of preparation and mammoth building projects
centered on this city's playing host to the Olympics, including teaching
thousands of taxi drivers English and instructing local citizens on how
to queue up in line (not something common here), Beijing is looking a
little less welcoming for foreigners.

Thousands of hotels, restaurants and tourist agencies that were hoping
to cash in on Olympic fever are now facing the prospect of empty rooms,
tables and tour buses. Many developments are supposed to be complete in
mid-July.

"Business is so bleak," said Di Jian, the sales manager at the Capital
Hotel in Beijing. "Since May, very few foreigners have checked in. Our
occupancy rate has dropped by 40 percent."

The government does not seem to have come to its decision lightly. In a
year plagued by riots in Tibet, protests of the Olympic torch relay, a
terrorist plot to kidnap journalists covering the Olympics (according to
Beijing officials) and the Sichuan earthquake, the government is
stressing public safety, above all else.

Beijing appears less concerned about being the host of a global party,
experts say, and more concerned with making sure no one spoils it.

"In order to secure a safe environment in Beijing, we will carry the new
visa policy for a certain time," Qin Gang, a spokesman for the Chinese
Foreign Ministry, said at a May news conference. "This new visa policy
is just temporary, not a permanent one."

If there were any doubts about Beijing's priorities, they were made
clear Thursday, with the announcement that 100,000 commandos, police
officers and army troops would be placed on high alert during the Games,
signaling that China is prepared for anything.

The heightened sense of alert over security threats in the capital has
done something else too: it has spawned a huge rumor mill about other
actions the government may be taking.

Among the reports: the border with North Korea has been closed; foreign
students and migrant workers are being asked to leave Beijing during the
Olympics; and all outdoor parties planned for the three-week-long
Olympic celebration have been canceled, putting the hex on all the fun
everyone expects to have during the Games.

Many of the reports cannot be confirmed by Beijing officials, but poor
communication about policy and security measures is contributing to the
chaos.

Nothing is hurting more than the visa policy. Business executives,
particularly from the United States, Hong Kong and Taiwan, have
complained that new visa restrictions have crimped deal-making in the
run-up to the Olympics.

Many Hong Kong executives, for example, say visa rules were tightened in
April, forcing them to apply more frequently for visas, and often
required proof of a hotel booking, round-trip airline tickets, and in
some cases, a letter of invitation.

"This is not good for business," said Richard Vuylsteke, president of
the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, which represents American
companies doing business in the region. "It's kind of draconian from
some point of view. But politics and security trumps economics,
especially during the Olympics. We just hope that after the Olympics
things will change."

Hotel operators are also frustrated. A massive hotel building boom -
which has bolstered the number of four- and five-star hotels in Beijing
from about 64 in 2001 to 161 as of April 30, according to government
figures - is beginning to look frothy. Many operators are depressed.

"Usually May and June are the busy season for our hotel," said Jiang
Zhiqiang, a spokesman for the New Otani Changfugong Hotel in Beijing.
"This year is quite unusual. I think several natural and man-made
disasters happened subsequently, which hurt our business." With the
opening ceremony of the Olympics just seven weeks away, only about 44
percent of four-star and about 77 percent of five-star hotel rooms are
booked in Beijing, according to the Beijing Tourist Bureau.

And if visitors cannot get visas to enter the country, many of those
hotels will have to slash rates, which had jumped to as high as $2,000 a
night when prospects were brighter.

In some ways, the hotels are also on the front lines of the security
crackdown. They typically share guest lists with the government. But now
they are being asked to supply photographs of all their employees to
help the government in visa approvals.

Chinese-owned hotels may be the worst hit, because many are still
building frantically to prepare for a huge number of foreign visitors
who were expected to descend upon the city beginning in late July.

Many large tourist agencies - hoping to thrive in the Olympic calendar -
have already surrendered.

"Now most of my colleagues for inbound tourism don't come to work," said
Wang Ge, director of the inbound tourism department at the Beijing
Tourism Group. "We have no clients this month. Our business is bleak. We
expected a booming business before the Olympics, but now it's
disappointing."

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