flights. In the domestic market, Beijing has joined hands with the top 10 tourist cities including Shanghai, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Xi'an, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Kunming, Chengdu, Harbin and Guilin in establishing a cooperation mechanism, which is expected for sharing of tourist resources and promoting of joint travel programs.

Campaign II, January-May 2008

Advertising and promotion of products including overseas sales, Olympic match viewing and combined tours are the highlights.

The first half of 2008 will be the critical period as travel agents scramble for market share. With ticketing programs taking shape, competition for tickets and hotel resources will get fiercer among travel agents. Tickets for major matches, the opening and closing ceremony and downtown hotels with easy access to the venues will be highly sought after. Based on the number of tickets and hotel rooms available, the travel agents will nail down the schemes and make quotations of Olympic match viewing tours against the costs. And this will be the most profitable product. During this period, the long-distance and international inbound tour market will skyrocket.

Campaign III, June-July 2008

Service preparation will be in progress. As the first batch of international guests arrive in Beijing, reception and servicing for amusement and match-viewing products will be conducted by local guides. Confirmation of flights, accommodation and transport to ensure main match-viewing products proceed smoothly will be in full swing.

Availability of hotel resources

Ni said there are two kinds of Olympic tour products, the event-viewing package and the play-and-view package, with the latter being more popular. Due to the contrast between relatively low cost of tickets and the higher cost of accommodation and transportation, travel agents are snapping up hotel rooms. Currently, the room rates of three-star and four-star hotels are $300-400 and $450-550 respectively, and 80 percent of hotel rooms have been booked.

According to the marketing manager of China Youth Travel Service Co. Ltd. (CYTS), preparations for the Olympic Games have already begun. A website called auyou.com was launched two years ago to provide international standard service. Through additional offering of shares on the capital market, 50 million yuan was raised to purchase new vehicles. As overseas tourists have the habit of setting up their schedule six-to-twelve months ahead of time, CYTS has unfolded its booking service across the globe. The estimated headcount of tourists during the Olympic Games for CYTS is around 150,000, approximately two thirds of its yearly volume. China International Travel Service and China Travel Service also expect incoming tourists to number around 150,000 during the event.

Catering, hospitality and transport fleet

Ni is of the opinion that during the Olympics, sectors associated to tourism such as catering, hospitality and transportation will benefit most.

Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group Co. Ltd., the exclusive supplier of dairy products for the 2008 Olympics, has rented in total 600 rooms of the Longmai-Wenquan Hotel in Changping District, the outskirts of Beijing, and reserved shuttle buses at the cost of 10,000 yuan per day, a level three-to-five times higher than normal during the Games.

The fleet run by Shouqi Auto Lease Corp. has all been reserved. Availability of vehicles at other major tour operators such as CYTS is also strained. It is estimated that there will be a big gap between demand and supply for shuttle buses and car chartering services.

A daily tourist volume of around 500,000 will guarantee a big opportunity for the catering business.

More incoming and outgoing flights and increasing demand for flight booking services is expected when construction of the third terminal at the Beijing Capital International Airport is completed.

An increase in profits for the hospitality industry will be remarkable, as Beijing is expected to experience an eight-fold surge in the number of tourists. Other cities where matches are held such as Tianjin and some famous tourist spots like Guilin shall see a one to two-fold increase in profits. In places where accommodation capability is inadequate, rent of short-term apartments and residential accommodation may also grow.

Tianjin, Shandong and Hebei to benefit

Provinces outside Beijing may fundamentally seize the opportunity by luring tourists with their infrastructure. For instance, boasting easy transport to and from Beijing, Tianjin will try to attract tourists from Beijing to eat, stay and go sightseeing in the city during the Olympic period due to its cost advantages being 60 percent lower than in Beijing.

Shandong is a major beneficiary of the Olympic Games. Between 2002 and 2006, Qingdao has invested an accumulated input of 20.6 billion yuan into construction of over 100 key tourism projects. As Qingdao is the host city of sail-boat racing, 10 travel itineraries have been introduced in Shandong: golden coast tour along Qingdao, Yantai, Weihai and Rizhao; the mountain, water and sage enriched tour encompassing visits to Taishan Mountain, Jinan's spring and Confucius' Temple in Qufu; the folklore exploration tour in places such as Weifang and Zibo in Jiaodong Peninsula; the probe into ancient townships and tasting local food around Jinan and Qingzhou, are all promising good profits.

Hebei Province is geographically well positioned. Several travel itineraries including Beijing-Qinghuangdao-Chengde, Beijing-Zunhua-Tangshan-Qinghuangdao and Beijing-Baoding-Shijiazhuang have been launched.

(Xinhua Finance)