Beijing saw a big drop in overseas tourist arrivals in April – down by 5.3 per cent year-on-year – following the tightened visa issuing rules, official statistics reveal.
A government spokeswoman attributed the dip “partly to Beijing's
tightened business visa approvals on foreign visitors for international
exhibitions and conferences, because of safety concerns for the coming
Olympic Games,” state media reports.
Among the 385,000 overseas tourists to visit Beijing in April, 38,000
were from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, a drop of 30 per cent year on
year. The number of foreign tourists decreased by 1.5 per cent, to
347,000.
The sharpest drop in April came from Beijing's three major markets: the
United States, Japan and Korea, with visitor numbers falling 17.2 per
cent, 24.4 per cent and 11 per cent, respectively.
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