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Olympics disappoint China business owners - Los Angeles Times
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This Link is located in the Public Channel Chinese Bubble.
Posted by ian 1 year 209 days ago (latimes.com). Views: 101
Tags: china olympics |
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He had expected his Sichuan restaurant, a couple of miles from the Olympic village, to be packed with tourists during the Games. But it's been unusually quiet. One day this week, business was so slow that Li let two of his seven staff members go home in the middle of the lunch hour. Three others sat in the corner watching television.
"Everybody thought the Olympics would be great for business," he said. "It turned out differently."
Many owners of small restaurants, hotels and shops in Beijing are wearing long faces this summer, especially those who poured their life savings into buying businesses or sprucing up their shops ahead of the Games.
About half a million foreign visitors were expected in Beijing this month. But many businesspeople think that because of stricter visa rules and other hassles, there are no more here now than there were last August, when 420,000 visitors from abroad came to the capital. In July, Air China, the nation's flagship carrier, saw its international passenger traffic fall by 19% from a year earlier.
The number of domestic tourists has also been lower than expected. Fearing inflated prices for hotels and airline tickets, many Chinese apparently decided to watch the Games at home.
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