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Bit of a non-runner?
The Hong Kong Tourist Board is reporting disappointing hotel bookings for its Olympic month of August.
Hong Kong is to host the equestrian events at the Games but says that with just three months to go before the big event, only 50% of the available hotel rooms have been booked – a 10% fall in last year’s bookings for the period.
Hong Kong’s Tourist Board chairman James Tien said in Hong Kong’s The Standard newspaper that there was little the board could do to boost flagging interest except continue with its promotional activities.
Meanwhile the Federation of Hong Kong Hotel Owners executive director Michael Li described the bookings as “unsatisfactory.” He said the equestrian events had a “lack of appealâ€, adding: “Even [the government] has no idea how many spectators the events could attract.”
He added that the complicated procedures introduced when applying for mainland visas and the Sichuan earthquake had also lowered the interest of tourists, who may have planned to visit the mainland after the events in Hong Kong.
By Dinah Hatch
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Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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