Shopper-numbers disappoint at Olympics

Indications are that the Olympics did not attract the huge numbers of international tourists to Beijing as was hoped – which could be a warning bell for SA expectations for 2010 as well.

The Chinese government initially predicted that record numbers of tourists would be visiting Beijing, which was scaled down to 500 000 (slightly more than the number who visited in August last year), which people in the tourist industry have since scaled down further as many hotel rooms stood empty. The ten large malls that opened in Beijing this year also did not attract the crowds of shoppers they expected – while some, especially those with big-screen TV screens for Olympics viewing attracted window shoppers and a few buyers, most stores were reportedly disappointed with sales.