Financial crisis makes China Beijing Tourism even

By china tour on 2009-6-29 5:18:00 | China Travel News

Financial crisis makes China Beijing Tourism even harder
At the end of 2008 the financial crisis makes it even harder to make ends meet, is a challenging time for many. China tourism market has weakened due to natural disasters in the early months and the current financial crisis. For the first ten months of 2008,Beijing received only about 3.3 million inbound tourists staying overnight in the city, a decrease of over 11 percent year-on-year, according to the Beijing Tourism Administration.
In early December, tourism officials from home and abroad gathered at a Beijing Tourism Industry Development Forum to discuss the way out of this current crisis.The capital's tourism industry received a big boost from the Beijing summer Olympics and has become a driving force behind the city's economic growth, Beijing vice Mayor Ding Xiangyang said. "Tourism can solve many problems. It not only brings the investment, it also boosts consumption." Statistics show that yearly tourism revenue currently accounts for about seven percent of Beijing's annual GDP. Vice Mayor Ding says the city hopes that number will soon reach ten percent. To realize this goal, the government will take a series of steps, investing 78 billion RMB in 83 travel programs. International tourism professionals are also invited to serve these travel programs as senior advisors, including Manny Fontenla-Novoa, Chief Executive Officer of the Thomas Cook Group, Paul Kennedy, Chairman of the Reed Travel Exhibition, and the President of Japan's JTB Corp, Tagawa Hiromi.

Graeme Barnett, Exhibition Director, Meetings & Incentive Events, is from Reed Travel Exhibitions who organizes a range of travel industry events for trade professionals around the world."Through our networks, we carefully select those people we have conducted business with in China, or have the ability to do business in China in the future. We invite them to the event, whether they are from America, Europe, Asia, we pay for their flights, hotel accommodation, transfers, basically they are our guests. We take care of their travel plans... "
"In the near future, Beijing will receive more and more tourists. The neighbouring cities of Beijing has contributed a lot during the Beijing Olympic Games, thus we have been thinking how to share the tourism resources with other cities."More importantly, to promote regional tourism is an effective way to boost a steady economy. As an encouraging news, over 45 express way toll booths will be exempt between Beijing and Tianjin. Cross-regional tavellers will be able to forward their tour-related complaints beyond city borders. Neighbouring cities will also be better sharing tourism resources and gain a win-win situation.