Concerns and Controversies Over The 2008 Summer Olympics - Tourism

Tourism

Prior to the Games, officials anticipated two million tourists, of which one-third would be from overseas. However, actual volume of visitors fell 9.2% year-on-year. Chinese officials cited the Sichuan earthquake, riots in Tibet, torch relay protests and the subprime mortgage crisis as factors. Locally, many people anticipated that Beijing would be too crowded during the Games. Businesses avoided scheduling meetings during these two weeks, and potential Chinese visitors decided to stay at home and watch the events on TV.

Initially, many hotel owners invested heavily for the Olympics. Many anticipated bookings in the 70% to 80% level, and room prices jumped as much as ten times the regular level. Occupancy of 77% was reported for luxury hotels in early August. For 4-star hotels and lower, occupancy of 40% led to price reductions, although still at three times the regular price. In July, Air China, the nation's flagship carrier, also saw its international passenger traffic fall by 19% from a year earlier.

Hoteliers blamed the lack of visitors on increased security measures and the tightening of visa rules and for driving out thousands of itinerant foreigners and overseas students living in Beijing. Visa requirements introduced in April required foreign visitors to have proof of their accommodation and return flight when applying to enter China. One foreign Olympics consultant was quoted as saying "they made it hard to get tickets and hard to get visas. The impression they gave was that they didn’t want foreigners to come".

According to the Beijing Olympic Organising Committee (BOCOG), the 6.8 million tickets to the Games were sold out. The prevalence of empty seats at many events caused journalists and visitors to be suspicious about these claims. Beijing Olympic organisers were said to have given some 2.7 million tickets to officials and corporate sponsors, many of whom did not attend the events. A mainland journal suggested that the day-tickets without right of re-entry was also part of the problem. In one instance, people in the audience left the stadium after the Chinese women's volleyball match, but they were not allowed back when they found out there was another game. A senior BOCOG official expressed concern about the empty seats, saying that the hot, humid weather could have caused the poor turnout. Officials admitted to bussing in locals or "cheerleaders" to fill seats. The empty seats angered athletes of countries outside China, who had been told that 80 percent of tickets had been reserved for the Chinese.

Despite early warnings published by The Guardian and efforts by official ticketing coordinators, more than $6 million in fraudulent tickets were sold by an illegitimate online ticket broker.