Still plenty of rooms available in Beijing
Strange as it sounds, there are still plenty of hotel rooms available for the Beijing Olympics. The expected surge in foreign visitors is unlikely with less than 30 days to go before the Olympics.
Most hotels were expecting to cash in on the Olympics by charging up to 10 ten times their normal rates.
AP reports that top end hotels are 75 percent booked and three star hotels are running at 30 per cent.
Tighter visa restrictions are partly to blame, but ever since the Olympic torch relay started, the Olympics have had nothing but bad press in the media (except of course in China).
Reports of riots, terrorism, missiles and natural disasters in China can not have been helpful. Also the early reports of hotels putting up their rates by ten times the going rate could have put people off. Good lessons to be learnt for future Olympic host cities.
Frankly, with all the news of security checks, prohibitions on what you can wear, where you can go, the massive hassles to get a visa, and the Chinese government absurdly calling the world’s foremost pacifist a seperatist provocateur, it’s no wonder people are dissuaded from attending the games. It’s too bad, Beijing’s makeover and the all the tit-for-tat record breaking that’s occured before the Olympics begin make for potentially amazing games. Perhaps for the Shanghai expo 2010 the government will learn to ease up on the draconian rhetoric and allow people to actually see the modern, happy China I see every day.
Couldn’t agree more Stephan!
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