Beijing visitor numbers are not that impressive - so bargain bucket hotels aplenty

Dramatic scenes this afternoon on the TV at Travolution Towers (i.e. our BBC iPlayer!) of the opening ceremony at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

But it has emerged this week, courtesy of data from hotels.com, that there is apparently a bargain to be had for last-minute travellers.

The reason for this is that the anticpated stream of visitors has not materialised. In fact, it is expected there will be just a maximum of an extra 30,000 tourists in the city in August this year, compared to the same month in 2007.

Another interesting fact is that in April this year the average price of a room in the Chinese capital during the Games was close to £400. This was slashed to £144 in July.

So unless you have desire to protest on behalf of the Free Tibet movement, now is a rather good time to visit the Smoggy City.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

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