Information from the municipal statistics bureau said hotel occupancy rates in the Chinese capital had plummeted since late April, with the occupancy rates of five-star hotels hitting six percent in May, down by 66 percentage points from the same month of last year.

There were drastic falls in April and May in both the number of tourists received at the city's major scenic sites and the volume of passengers transported by taxi, air and train.

Beijing has been one of the areas worst hit by SARS in China. The World Health Organization (WHO) renewed an advisory against travel to Beijing on Apr. 12 for fear of the spreading of SARS.

In the first five months of the year, Beijing hosted 693,900 overseas tourists, down by 37.3 percent from the same period last year.

The fall in the number of tourists began in April and became most obvious in May.

With the continuation of the WHO travel advisory, the China National Tourism Administration issued a circular on Apr. 21 banning trans-regional tourism programs and organized tours to the areas affected by SARS.

Travel services in Beijing suspended organized out-bound tours in May.

(Xinhua News Agency June 20, 2003)