Overseas visitors and travel agencies that send tour groups to Beijing will be the big winners as the city's tourism authority leads the industry out of a potentially fatal SARS shadow.

The first overseas visitors to the national capital after the recent lifting of the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) travel warning by the World Health Organization will receive special attention, Yu Changjiang, director of the Beijing Tourism Bureau, said Thursday.

The first 1,500 overseas tourists will be invited to a banquet that will be held in the Great Hall of the People on each Friday from July 4.

Also, major tourist attractions in the city will introduce their off-season prices to the public earlier than usual.

The preferential pricing policy for entry fees starts today and will continue until the end of August.

"The favorable polices will help accelerate the rebounding speed of Beijing's tourism sector, " Yu said. "I believe the overseas tourist market in Beijing will be back to normal by October."

According to Yu, Beijingers have already begun to travel to the outskirts of the city and domestic tourists are expected to start coming back to the capital from next month.

To help ease any frustration associated with traveling to the city, a series of commitments have been made by the tourist authority. They have been endorsed by more than 1,000 tourism enterprises including hotels, restaurants and travel agencies.

Beijing tourism authority representatives and people from other relevant groups will fly to Japan, the Republic of Korea and Southeast Asian countries in August to promote newly developed travel products.

Beijing will also invite overseas media and tourism companies to come and inspect the city for themselves.

It is estimated that Beijing will lose 45 billion yuan (US$5.4 billion) in tourism revenue as a result of the flu-like virus.

(China Daily June 27, 2003)