Beijing Municipal Bureau of Tourism (BTA) recently revealed that BTA and Beijing Development and Reform Commission would jointly publish forecast and guiding prices to control prices of hotel rooms during the 2008 Olympic Games.

BTA officially established a leading group for implementation of Olympics-related tasks on June 11th.

BTA and other relevant departments will organize surveys on room prices of Beijing's star-rated hotels from 2004 to 2006 and prices of Olympic host cities during previous Olympic Games.

Based on those surveys and prediction of tourist volume to Beijing during the 2008 Olympic Games, authorities will make forecast prices of hotel rooms during the 2008 Olympic Games and therefore confirm guiding prices during that period.

At the same time, in an effort to enhance the overall level of Beijing's accommodation industry, authorities will also formulate standards of equipment and service quality for receiving spectators of the Olympic Games, and conduct business instruction and examinations for this industry.

Moreover, they will establish a hotel reservation platform for spectators and tourists of the Beijing Olympic Games. The platform will be linked to the official website of Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008 Olympic Games (BOCOG) and well promoted to the public to guarantee convenient and quick reservation for spectators.

It is learned that currently Beijing has 24 hotels under construction, which will be able to provide 10,000 rooms upon completion.

By then, Beijing will have 637 hotels, with overall accommodation capacity of 110,000 rooms, excluding the number of guesthouses to be upgraded before 2008.

At present reception capacity of all these hotels is able to basically meet the demand for the peak of tourist volume in 2008.

(Chinanews.cn June 14, 2005)