Rooms going cheap as hotels scramble for visitors

The number of visitors to Beijing is estimated to have fallen more than 10 percent last year as a result of the global economic slowdown, a senior official have said.

Zhang Huiguang, head of the Beijing tourism administration, said on Wednesday at a national working conference: "The anticipated tourist influx after the Olympic Games did not materialize, and international visitor arrivals fell."

It is estimated that 3.8 million international visitors stayed at least one night in Beijing last year, down 14 percent on 2007, she said.