Beijing accommodation rates low ahead of Olympics

Plenty of rooms are still available in Beijing for the Olympics, and officials are hoping that domestic visitors will make up for what seems to be an absence of foreign guests.

Xiong Yuemi, the deputy director of Beijing’s Tourism Bureau, noted earlier this week that 45.5 per cent of the capital city’s four-star hotel rooms were booked for the duration of the Olympics. Properties with ratings of three stars or below were also booked at a rate of under 50 percent, she added.

She did not link the vacancies with visa control or bad publicity the country has received recently. The games will open on 8 August, giving a relatively short time for the bookings to come in. The government had hoped the games would show the world a new China, but in fact they are also drawing attention to some of the authoritarian practices that have been a core part of daily life for its citizens over the past six decades

Said Xiong of the hotel occupancy rate: “This is within our expectations.”

She reported that the occupancy rate at five-star hotels, a number of which have been booked by officials for the Olympics, and national delegations and sponsors of various events, had reached 78.1 per cent. Occupancy rates had been calculated in late June, and she noted that the rate for the same hotels at the same time last year was 69 per cent.

About half a million foreign visitors are expected to be in Beijing for the games.

“There are still many domestic ticket holders who haven’t booked hotels yet,” Xiong added. “When the games start, the actual occupancy rate will be higher than the current reservation rate.”

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