Beijing tourist numbers down 13.9% in the first half of the year

Beijing received 13.9% fewer overseas tourists in the January-July period compared with a year ago as a slow global economy took its toll on tourism, new figures showed.

Overseas visitors amounted to 2.51 million in the first seven months of the year, the local statistics bureau said on Saturday.

Overall, the city hosted 2.17 million foreign visitors, down 14.7%. Meanwhile, visitors from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao also declined by 9.1% to 347,000, the bureau said in a statement.

Of the major sources, tourists from the United States fell by 3.6% year on year to 431,000. The numbers from South Korea fell by 19.9% to 215,000, while those from Japan fell by 53.7% to 136,000 in the wake of deterioration in bilateral relations.

Source: Want China Times