17:44 GMT +00:00
Beijing's hotels: getting nervous?



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Economist.com | LONDON

Categories:
Hotels
Olympics HOTELS in Beijing are not yet reaping the expected benefits of the Olympics. An interesting article from AP wonders whether they may have been over-optimistic in their assumptions about visitor numbers. Five-star hotels are currently 77% booked up for the August games, and four-star hotels are just 44% full—well below the 90% that would, apparently, be expected for such an event.

Although external factors are partially responsible for the slump, it seems the Chinese government may not have helped itself:

The earthquake on May 12th that killed almost 70,000 in Sichuan province may account for some of the decrease. So may a slumping world economy, and off-putting images of deadly rioting on March 14th in Tibet, followed by chaotic pro-Tibet protests on international legs of the torch relay. But the tourist no-shows also coincide with new stringent visa regulations, making it tough for tourists and business executives to come in. Students have also been targeted, the government fearing they might side with political activists if protests erupt during the games.

The recent massive building of hotels assumes a sustained increase in tourist numbers after the games. That, too, may be optimistic. The article quotes the marketing director of the Kempinksi hotel, who has a rather gloomy prognosis for September and beyond: "We will see a big vacuum after the Olympic games," he said.
The view from the state-run China Daily is, unsurprisingly, much more positive. It reported earlier this week on a bright future for Beijing's hotels:

The Beijing Tourism Bureau has predicted that the Beijing tourism industry will continue growing, unlike the post-Olympics slump suffered by other host countries such as Greece.
The number of overseas guests is predicted to grow at around 30 to 60 percent annually, rising to a peak in 2010, and the average occupancy rate will increase to more than 72 percent in 2009, the tourism bureau believes.

So, will Beijing's hotels enjoy a post-Olympic feast or famine? Given that the number of top-end hotels has doubled since the city was awarded the Olympics, Gulliver suspects there will be hunger of sorts—but doubts that stats would ever be published to confirm that.

Source: http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2008/06/beijings_hotels_getting_nervou.cfm?Fsrc=glvrnwl