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On August 5, according to the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, Beijing became the most popular summer tourist destination this summer. In July, the city's hotels received a total of 9.97 million tourists. From a full-year perspective, the total number of hotel receptions in the city is expected to exceed 100 million this year. The vigorous development of the tourism market has also put forward higher requirements for the high-quality development of the service industry. While formulating new measures for the hotel industry, Beijing has also re-standardized and improved the services of tourist attractions. In terms of inbound tourism, Beijing will focus on promoting solutions to problems such as tourism products and language environment in the second half of the year. Beijing's tourism industry will continue to develop with high quality and continuously improve the quality of tourism public services.

An increase of 1.43 million people compared with the same period last year

Since the beginning of this year, while the tourism market has been booming, Beijing has also made relevant arrangements for the high-quality development of the service industry.

Focusing on the current summer market, according to data released by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, Beijing has become the most popular summer tourist destination since this summer. In July, the city's hotels received a total of 9.97 million tourists, an average of 320,000 tourists per day, 1.43 million more than the 8.54 million tourists in the same period last year, and an average of 46,000 more tourists per day than the same day last year. Looking at the whole year, the total number of tourists received by hotels in the city this year is expected to exceed 100 million.

The continued strong market demand has also put forward higher requirements for the development of the service industry. The relevant person in charge of the Market Management Division 2 of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism said that they are currently studying and formulating "Several Measures on Promoting the High-Quality Development of the Capital's Hotel Industry in the New Era" and strive to implement them as soon as possible.

In the view of Zhao Huanyan, a senior economist in the tourism and hotel industry, the hotel industry is an important part of the development of the tourism industry. The quality of hotel reception has a significant impact on the level of tourism development. Improving the hotel reception capacity and level requires practical measures to ensure it. Therefore, Beijing’s introduction of new measures is very timely and necessary.

In addition to formulating new measures for the hotel industry, Beijing has also optimized scenic spot reservations and strengthened the quality improvement of tourism public service facilities (equipment). It is understood that previously, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism issued a notice to completely cancel the reservation and purchase of tickets for tourist attractions, while retaining the scenic spot reservation service and striving to optimize the ticket purchase service.

Achieve full coverage of foreign card payment acceptance

In the first half of this year, Beijing's inbound tourism market has pressed the "accelerator", and inbound tourists will also become an incremental source of growth for Beijing's hotel industry this year.

Data released by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism showed that Beijing received about 1.6582 million inbound tourists from January to June 2024, a year-on-year increase of 245.6%. At the same time, Beijing Business Daily reporters also learned from some popular inbound tourist attractions such as Mutianyu Great Wall that the number of inbound tourists accounted for 30% in the first half of the year, and the number is continuing to increase.

With the increasing number of inbound tourists, the promotion of payment convenience has become a common focus of the industry. It is understood that the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, together with the Beijing Branch of the People's Bank of China, has completed the payment convenience work of 732 three-star and above hotels in the city, as well as non-star hotels equivalent to three-star and above standards, and has achieved full coverage of foreign card payment acceptance. Each hotel is equipped with no less than two foreign card POS machines, and four-star and five-star hotels are equipped with ATM machines, foreign currency self-service exchange machines or manual exchange services.

Liu Bo, Revenue Management Director of Kempinski Hotel Beijing Lufthansa Center, said that the inbound market has always been the focus of the hotel. From September to October, the traditional inbound tourism market will usher in the peak season. At present, the hotel is strengthening cooperation with overseas channels, hoping to introduce more foreign customers for international business and inbound tourism, making it a new growth point for hotel revenue.

When talking about the work priorities for the inbound tourism market in the second half of the year, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism stated that it will focus on promoting solutions to issues such as service improvement, tourism products, publicity and promotion, and language environment in the second half of the year, and stimulate the effectiveness of a series of "please come in" policies such as visa-free entry by improving service levels.

Zhao Huanyan believes that Beijing's measures to improve the level of inbound tourism reception will inevitably be tested and implemented during the upcoming inbound tourism peak, which will also be a strong boost to the performance of the hotel industry. Hotels also need to plan more convenient services and infrastructure in advance, including upgrading payment equipment, launching special catering, and multilingual services.

"To achieve high-quality development of the Beijing tourism market, all parties in the industry need to complement each other and work together to improve the quality and level of tourism services while better meeting the diversified and quality needs of tourists," Zhao Huanyan also said.

Beijing Business Daily reporter Wu Qiyun

Image source: Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism