Olympic guests checking into Beijing hotels for the 2008 Games
will pay much less for their rooms than participants at Athens in
2004.
Organisers yesterday promised that the city's large number of
hotels meant room prices would be kept at a reasonable level.
"As Beijing has enough hotels, prices are sure to be lower,"
said Xiang Ping, vice-director of the Games Services Department of
the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad
(BOCOG).
The average price for a five-star hotel room will be US$353,
while that for four-star and three-star hotel rooms will be US$272
and US$176 respectively. This compares to prices of around 500
euros (US$628.9) for a five-star room during the 2004 Athens
Olympics.
"As we promised in our Olympic bid, the highest price for a
standard room for accredited participants will be no higher than
US$370," Xiang told China Daily.
According to Xiang, up to now BOCOG has signed services
contracts with 112 hotels in Beijing including 38 five-star, 40
four-star and 34 three-star hotels.
Together with the Olympic Village, the Athletes' Village and the
Media Village, these hotels will accommodate 50,000 accredited
athletes, journalists, officials and sponsors.
"The prices are based on quotes from all the hotels in 2005 and
2006, the hotel price increase rate in Beijing and its consumer
price index," Xiang said, adding that the prices will be only a
little bit higher than the present charges.
As for prices for tourists and spectators, Xiang said she hoped
they would be similar to the contracted hotels' rates.
But tourism officials said hotels have the right to decide their
own prices. "We suggest hotels set their prices according to market
demand," said an official from the Beijing Municipal Bureau of
Tourism. "We won't arbitrarily set the prices."
In Athens during the 2004 Games, hotel prices rocketed, putting
off many potential sports fans.
The Beijing Tourism Administration estimates that during the
2008 Games, Beijing will receive 500,000 to 550,000 overseas
tourists and spectators, while the number of domestic visitors will
reach 2.58 million.
According to statistics from the China National Tourism
Administration, about 55 million overseas visitors came to China
last year.
(China Daily June 14, 2006)