Visa limits undermine Beijing's tourism hopes
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/20/asia/visa.php
By David Barboza
Published: 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."
游客都没了，咋发奥运财
多维社记者纪军编译报导／每年的这个时候，北京嘉里中心酒店通常都挤满了外国游客，许多人逗留在酒吧一边听着爵士乐一边喝着马丁尼酒，或者在豪华餐厅吃完晚餐后排队等候的士。
然而，周四晚上，酒店的酒吧内只有少数客人，往年这时候其入住率通常都接近100%。当晚酒店值班的经理在键盘上敲打几下后说，现在的入住率只有63%。
“我真不知道到底发生了什么，”值班经理孙任(音译)说，“一些事情一直很奇怪。”
国际先驱论坛6月20日发表的长篇文章指出，这个问题似乎与中国一直限制外国游客进入有关，尤其是在距离北京奥运会还有不到两个月之际，为了防范恐怖威胁或阻止那些可能策划破坏这场盛会的不法游客，北京早已严控签证。
中国政府签发的旅游签证好象越来越少了。商界人士称，到北京旅行，他们面临着新的官僚障碍。而政府则要求各大酒店提供有关外国客人的详细资料。
这些严控措施再加上上个月四川大地震这样悲惨的消息，已给中国旅游业带来冲击，也给这个本来应该是繁忙和喜庆的旅游旺季蒙上阴影。
北京各大酒店公布的昂贵的夏季价目表，以及很难卖到奥运比赛门票，也影响到旅游行业的预期，尽管许多五星级酒店声称奥运会期间的客房已被订满。
然而对于众多酒店来说，现在的趋势正变得越来越糟糕，以至于许多经济学家开始怀疑，是否北京将会在奥运会期间得到那种它所希望得到的“意外收入”－－市场分析家曾预测说，奥运会将给北京带来50万外国游客，还有45亿美元的额外收入。
可实际情况却恰恰相反。在距离奥运会只有数周之际，北京各大酒店正挣扎着寻找客人；一些大型旅行社也在这个旅游旺季关门了，打算到北京开研讨会和会议的人也取消了行程。
国际先驱论坛报的文章称，北京市的居民也怨声载道，他们抱怨说，高度的安全措施，可能会破坏这场即将到来的盛会。
事实上，围绕着主办奥运会，这座城市经过多年的筹备和庞大的场馆建设后，看起来并不象是不欢迎外国游客的到来，从让数千名出租车司机学习英语，以及指导居民如何排队等行动中，便可以看出来。
可早前希望趁这股奥运热大赚一笔的成千上万的酒店、餐馆和旅行社，现在则面临着客房、餐桌和旅游巴士都空空荡荡的前景。北京首都饭店销售经理狄建(音译)说，“生意实在太淡了，从5月开始，只有很少的外国人入住。我们的入住率已经下跌了40%。”
而中国政府似乎没有对这样的决定掉以轻心。尤其是在这个多事之年――东躲骚乱、奥运火炬海外传递连接遭到抗议、北京官方透露的绑架报导奥运会记者的恐怖阴谋，还有一个月前发生的大地震，中国政府正强调公共安全高于一切。
有专家指出，北京似乎对成为这场全球盛会的东道主不太担心，但更担忧的则是确保它没有遭人破坏。中国外交部发言人一个月有便强调，为了确保一个安全环境，中国将在某个时间初选新的签证政策，但这个新政策只是暂时的。
国际先驱论坛的文章指出，如果对北京的优先次序还有任何怀疑的话，他们已在6月19日做出更加明确的解释――宣布在奥运会期间将部署10万名突击队员、警务人员和军队来确保安全。这意味着中国已准备应对任何事情。
针对首都安全威胁的高度紧张感，也出现一些有关政府可能会考虑采取其他行动的谣传。比如说，已经关闭了朝鲜边境口岸；要求外国学生和外地民工在奥运期间离开北京；所有已计划好的在奥运期间举行户外庆祝的活动已被取消。
许多传闻都无法从北京官员那里得到确认，但对相关政策和保安措施的缺少沟通，则导致更多的混乱。
但没有什么象新签证政策那样，带来更多的伤害。尤其是来自美国、香港和台湾的商界高管们都在抱怨，这项新政策已经影响到他们的生意。许多香港商人说，4月份开始实行的严控签证规定，迫使他们更频繁地申请签证，还经常需要出具有关酒店预订，来回机票等证明文件，有时甚至需要一份邀请函。
“这是不好的营商环境，”美国香港商会会长魏理庭(Richard Vuylsteke)说，“从某些角度看，这种做法太残酷了。但政治和安全又胜过经济，尤其是在奥运会期间。所以我们只希望在奥运会后事情将会改变。”
国际先驱论坛报的文章说，北京各大酒店的经营者也感到非常沮丧。在一场大规模酒店建设热潮出现后，北京的四星级和五星级酒店已从2001年的63家，增加到目前的161家。现在来看，这股豪华酒店建设热潮，已经开始变成泡沫了。
“对我们酒店来说，5月和6月通常都是旺季，”北京长富宫饭店发言人江志强(音译)。“今年却相当不寻常，我认为接连发生的几起自然和人为的灾难，影响了我们的生意。”据北京旅游局统计，在距离奥运会开幕式只有七周之际，北京四星级酒店的客房预订只有44%，五星级的约有77%。
如果外国游客无法获得签证进入中国，那么北京的许多酒店将会大幅削减价格，现在已升至每晚2000美元。
在某些方面，酒店也是确保奥运安全的前线。它们通常会与政府机构分享客户名单，但现在它们已被要求提供所有雇员的照片，以协助政府审批签证。
中国国有酒店可能遭遇更严重的打击，因为很多酒店仍在疯狂地建设中，准备迎接大量的外国游客。据预计，外国游客将从7月下旬开始锐减。
而早前希望在奥运年大赚一笔的各大旅行社，如今也提前投降了。“现在我的大部分从事入境旅游的同事，都不来上班了，”北京旅游集团入境旅游部经理王戈(音译)说。
“我们这个月没有客户。生意很冷淡。我们曾预期奥运会前生意兴隆，可现在却非常令人失望，”王戈说。
调查显示日本人掀起买电视看北京奥运会浪潮
东京BCN市场调查公司18日公布的调查结果显示，5月平板电视机的销售业绩已经超过去年12月年底商战时的销售业绩。该公司认为，这是由于北京奥运即将来临，顾客需求开始增加。5月的销售数量和金额分别同比增长了27.5%和12.8%。据悉，进入6月后增长幅度变得更大，特别是40英寸以上大屏幕电视的需求量猛增。
BCN公司分析认为，“往年此时需求萎靡、增长率很低，此次因为北京奥运，需求量开始增加，使得本应在年底发生的商战提前出现。”（环球时报驻日本特约记者报道）
