Beijing tourist numbers down 13.9% January-July

BEIJING - Beijing received 13.9 percent fewer overseas tourists in the January-July period compared with a year ago as a slow global economy took its toll on tourism, new data has showed.

Overseas tourists amounted to 2.51 million in the first seven months of the year, the local statistics bureau said on Saturday.

Overall, the city hosted 2.17 million foreign tourists, down 14.7 percent, and travelers from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao declined 9.1 percent to 347,000, it said in a statement.

Of the major sources, tourists from the United States fell 3.6 percent year on year to 431,000. The numbers from the Republic of Korea fell 19.9 percent to 215,000. Those from Japan fell 53.7 percent to 136,000 in the wake of deterioration in bilateral relations.