China as a New Tourism Destination and Host of the Olympic Games 2008 - Coursework Example

China as a new tourist destination and the host of Olympics 2008 2006 Summary The Beijing Olympics 2008 is expected to transform China, economically, culturally and socially. Massive investments in the physical infrastructure, much larger than embarked upon in any other Olympics, has marked the preparations for the event. The effect is most likely to be felt on the country’s tourism industry, with a large inflow of tourists during the event and later. However, the infrastructure has meant that many Chinese have had to be evicted from their land. The event will invite a lot of media coverage that would bring China out of cultural isolation. Introduction Big events touch every aspect of life – economic, social, cultural and environmental. There are positive and negative aspects of events that need to be considered when organizing any event. The target should be to maximize the positive effects and take steps to counter the negative steps. International events centered on sports, in particular, involve all-round activities in a country. Not only do such events impact the participants directly, there is usually a huge community involvement and cohesive bonding among the local people, participants and tourists. The Beijing Olympics 2008 has induced unprecedented building activities in China in preparation of the event. Construction of infrastructure to house the large number of participants and visitors from across the world has been going on for the past couple of years. The event is also expected to boost the tourism industry in China as well as the food, entertainment and other merchandise sales. Hence, there is a multiplier effect of a large event on all-round economic activity including construction, restaurants, retail sales and transport business. A similar scenario was observed prior to the Sydney Olympics 2000. In this paper, I will discuss the effects that the Beijing 2008 Olympics is expected to have on the tourism industry, infrastructure, economy, society and culture of China. Tourism On an average, 10 million tourists visit China annually leading to revenues of $16 billion. Since the announcement of the Beijing 2008 Olympics in 2001, the country expects an increase of 18 percent in tourism earnings, according to a Goldman Sachs estimate (People’s Daily, 2001a). China's Tourism Development prior to the announcement of Beijing Olympics 2008 Indices Year 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 Total number of tourists from abroad(1,000 person-times) 46,386.5(6.2) 51,127.5(10.2) 57,587.9(12.6) 63,478.4(10.2) 72,790.0(14.7) Including: foreigners 5,886.7(13.6) 6,744.3(14.6) 7,428.0(10.1) 7,107.7(-4.3) 8,430.0(18.6) Overseas Chinese 115.8(0.5) 154.6(33.5) 99.0(-36.0) 120.7(21.9) - Hong Kong and Macao compatriots 38,851.7(5.0) 42,494.7(9.4) 47,943.3(12.8) 54,075.4(12.8) - Taiwan compatriots 1,532.3(10.2) 1,733.9(13.2) 2,117.6(22.1) 2,174.6(2.7) - Number of domestic tourists(billion person-times) 0.629(20.0) 0.639(1.6) 0.644(0.8) 0.694(7.8) 0.710(2.3) International tourism earnings(billion US dollars) 8.733(20.9) 10.200(16.8) 12.074(18.4) 12.602(4.4) 14.100(11.9) Domestic tourism earnings(billion yuan of RMB) 137.570(34.4) 163.838(19.1) 211.270(29.0) 239.118(13.2) 283.100(18.4) Source: People’s Daily, Novmber 21, 2001 The Olympics 2008 will be held at Beijing so the maximum number of visitor inflows from abroad will be concentrated in the capital city. Besides, the city also expects 500,000 to 1 million domestic visitors (RNCOS). The city will have to host tens of thousands of athletes, coaches and officials from across the world. The Beijing Municipal Corporation has, in fact, increased the growth target of tourist inflow from 4 percent to 8 percent after the announcement of the 2008 Olympics destination. The city plans to nearly double the number of star hotels from 90,000 to 130,000 (RNCOS) in the city and construct public toilets with an investment of $24.19million (People’s Daily, 2001a). However, tourist attractions will not only be limited to Beijing but spill over to other destinations in China. Hence, it is expected that tourism will be greatly enhanced in other cities as well. This has led many city authorities to plan for the great event prepare for mass visitors. In fact, many cities have sent representatives to locations like Davos in Switzerland, that has the experience of holding large business conferences, and Canada, Germany and Australia that have hosted Olympics earlier, to understand the requirements of hosting such a magnum event (People’s Daily, 2001a). In addition, Beijing will also have many more parking lots by 2008. The gas-fired power plant at Taiyanggong will also be ready by 2008 and heating pipes will be connected between the plant and the stadiums (China Embassy). China has already begun experiencing high tourist inflows, in preparation of the Games event. The occupancy rates have increased manifold and five-star hotels, even charging $150 a day, are seeing high revenues (RNCOS). In preparation of the Olympics 2008, Beijing practiced a similar though smaller event hosting in November 2006, with the China-Africa summit. With about 40 international diplomatic heads arriving at the city, this was a larger official event than any held earlier in China. The event was hosted with immaculate preparations, with traffic planned meticulously, restricting vehicles from outside Beijing and cleaning up the city of beggars (Economist, 2006). Infrastructure China plans $20 billion infrastructure addition for the Beijing Olympics 2008, marking the greatest construction project since the building of the Great Wall of China. According to the plan, Beijing will triple the express highway network from 216 km to 700 km, lengthen and improve the public transport system in the city and build many event venues. The subway lines will be expanded from 40.85 km to 53.7km. Along with the light rail system, the public transport network will cover 140km in Beijing. The main venue, the Olympic Park will have 37 competition and 59 training centers (People’s Daily, 2001d). Construction at the events sites is boosting local economies. Stadiums in China are being expanded and built. In Shenyang in northeast China, where factories had shut throwing many people out of the job market, the construction of a world-class soccer complex has boost the local economy. About $43 million is being spent to renovate the Shenyang Wulihe Jinde Stadium to the Olympics specifications. The 60,000 seat stadium was earlier done up for the 2002 World Cup qualifiers and a pop music concert (Asian Economic News, 2005). The physical infrastructure in China is already on the fast track, as a result of fast economic growth over the last decade, and the Olympics 2008 is expected to boost this. Nearly 100 airports have already been built and the country is having a new power plant almost every week besides new roads and highways criss-crossing the country (Connon, 2006). The Olympics 2008 has already induced a residential property boom in China. Increased infrastructure construction, higher present and expected incomes and increase in home loans have enabled this growth. China aims to build 2.7 billion urban housing by 2008 to provide an additional 23 square meter per person of living space. The eastern part of Beijing is being developed as the central business district and the Olympic venues are coming up in the north (People’s Daily, 2001c). Economy Since 2000, China’s economic growth has been higher than that of any other country in the world. In fact, China’s contribution to purchasing power higher than that of the United States and more than half the combined purchasing power of India, Brazil and Russia (Economist, 2006). China recorded growth rate of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 9.9 percent in 2004-05. Of the GDP at purchasing power parity of $8.859 trillion in 2004-05, 14.4 percent was contributed by agriculture, 53.1 percent by industries and 32.5 percent by the services (CIA). Thus, even while the population has been predominantly agriculture, China has made great strides in industries, particularly manufacturing industries, so that a greater share of the GDP is contributed by this sector (Business Week, 2005). The Beijing Olympics 2008 is expected to boost industries even further, to the extent of Chief Organizing Officer of the Games claiming that it will result in “an industrial revolution on a much bigger scale than Europe's” (Economist, 2006). Foreign investments in China have been the strongest force driving economic growth. Nearly $40 billion foreign direct investments (FDI) flow into China every year, which amounts to about 25 percent of FDI flowing into all developing countries. Since 1978, when China opened up its economy, initiated market reforms, including tax regime and privatization (Sullivan, 2003). FDI in China has so far come in assembly and processing for exports in the special economic zones that has extended to the rest of the economy more recently and also been protected by development of financial markets. China’s entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001 has motivated foreign investors even further (Sullivan, 2003). According to the WTO agreement, China had to allow FDI in tourism also. Social and cultural impact The Olympics 2008 event is seen both inside China and outside as the country’s coming of age. Despite the phenomenal growth of the Chinese economy in the recent past, the sustainability of the growth both in terms of its economy as well as a world political power is not yet very convincing. The magnanimity of the planned scale of the Beijing Olympics 2008 is designed to showcase the country’s might that will be able to match up with superpowers. The event is seen as a spectacular media event that marks the classic “contest, conquest and coronation” syndrome (Dayan and Price, 2006). The massive physical scale of the event highlights China’s accent to the global stage much more than its economic and trading strengths. However, it should also be remembered that the Olympic movement essentially homogenizes cultures by imposing specifications on the events. Hence, China may be forced to emerge from cultural isolation and assimilate with the mainstream culture as a result of the great event. The International Olympic Association stipulates guidelines and laws regarding the event. Typically, the stipulations are designed according to western notions hence there is usually limited participation by developing countries. Therefore, there is little possibility of assimilating the culture of emerging nations like China into the global mainstream culture. On the other hand, there is every risk of universalizing Chinese culture and eclipsing its traditions. However, the Olympics 2008 has invited global media coverage on China and used well, the focus may act as a great public relations campaign for the country. Much of the coverage for the past Olympics events have been through the official media, including accredited journalists and sponsors of events. However, with the phenomenal growth of the Internet recently, non-official media coverage of the Olympics and China during the event is more likely to increase China’s communication with the world. The image of China as a censored society may be loosened. Human Rights activists, too, expects the Chinese record of human rights to improve with the international guidelines in place. As of now, Chinese media is strictly monitored by the authorities. Nearly 20,000 foreign journalists are expected to cover the Beijing Olympics and they may risk the possibilities of censorship or detention in case of violations of laws. Besides, the Chinese satellite television that would cover the event would be entirely controlled by the government so there is little scope of independent reporting (Spiegel 2000(. Labor conditions in China are reported to be poor (Spiegel, 2006). Hordes of immigrant workers are building the infrastructure and buildings required for the Olympics. Yet, there are no trade union rights in China despite the fact the wages to these workers so far have been minimum and irregular. The construction work has also meant that there has been a lot of evictions from the locations where the buildings and stadiums are being built. Nearly 5,000 families have been shifted out of Beijing so far and another 1000 are expected to be moved. Especially, many peasants have lost their land and homes in north Beijing. Some, though not all, peasants have been provided with alternate jobs and monetary compensations have not always been satisfactory (Spiegel, 2006). Environmental Effects Great care is being taken for the infrastructure for the Beijing Olympics to be environment-friendly. For example, the air conditioning will not be allowed to run below 28 Celsius. In the Olympics Village, athlete accommodation will be powered by solar energy. Such measures are deemed necessary since China’s pollution levels are already high. China has targeted reducing pollution levels by 10 percent by 2010 and increasing the share of renewables in total energy consumption by 15 percent by 2020. As a result of measures taken, like planting trees, junking eight-year old cars and converting coal fired industrial boilers to natural gas, the number of ‘blue sky days’, that is when air quality in China are at par with international standards, have increased from 100 in 1984 to 234 now (Connon, 2006). China plans to install a 130KW photovoltaic system at the 12 entrances to the Beijing National Stadium, the main Games venues. This will make the stadium the world’s most environment-friendly stadium. Besides, a solar system will light the streets and provide hot water to athletes residing in the Games Village. Water treatment and rain harvesting systems are also being installed to save water. By 2007, Beijing will have as many as 14 waste water treatment plants (World Watch, 2006). Conclusion The Beijing Olympics 2008 is expected to be a historical event even in the history of the Olympics. While almost previous Olympics have been hosted by western nation, this is the first time that an emerging nation is hosting it. Hence, the event is looked upon as a coming-of-age event for China. It is a recognition for China’s growing global powers in the economic, trading and political spheres. Like all such big events, the most important and direct impact is through boosting tourism. Not only is the event making China, and particularly Beijing, a tourism event for 2008, there are long-term implications on the tourism industry in the country. The vast improvements in the infrastructure, the heightened media coverage and better accommodation facilities will be beneficial for the country’s tourism industry in the long run. Besides, the event will also serve as the ice-breaker between the eastern and western cultures, thus promoting a greater understanding between the peoples. However, an event of this size also has some pitfalls. For example, accommodating mass visitors involves a huge amount of infrastructure planning and effects on the habitat. The Chinese authorities are at great pains to promote environmental-friendly infrastructure that does not impinge on the lives of the common people. The actual effect of the event on the Chinese society will be visible only when the event is really held. Works Cited People’s Daily (2001a). Chinese Tourism Expects a Boost from Olympics, July 18. http://english.people.com.cn/english/200107/18/eng20010718_75302.html People’s Daily (2001b), Tourism Market to Open by 2003, November 21, http://english.people.com.cn/200111/20/eng20011120_84919.shtml People’s Daily (2001c). Olympic Dreams, WTO Hopes Fan China Housing Boom. August 17. http://english.people.com.cn/english/200108/17/eng20010817_77565.html People’s Daily (2001d). Beijing's Olympic Bid Spurs Massive Infrastructure Investment. February 22. http://english.people.com.cn/english/200102/22/eng20010222_63114.html RNCOS, China Cashing 2008 Beijing Olympics, http://www.24-7pressrelease.com/view_press_release.php?rID=20689 Business Week (2005). China and India – A Challenge: A New World Economy, August 22. http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_34/b3948401.htm CIA, World Factbook, http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ Sullivan, Nicholas, P. (n.d), The Effect of Policy and Legal Reforms on Foreign Direct Investment in China and India, Money Matters Institute. http://www.moneymattersinstitute.org/ChinaIndia.pdf The Economist (2005). Survey: India and China, The Tiger in Front, March 3. http://www.economist.com/surveys/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3689214 Asian Economic News (2005). Chinese city expects Olympic soccer to boost flat economy, Spetember 12, http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0WDP/is_2005_Sept_12/ai_n15403183 The Economist (2006). Practising for the Olympics, November 2, http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8113380 Connon, Heather (2006). Olympics Under a Cloud. The Observer. November 5. http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,1939799,00.html http://www.china-embassy.org/eng/gyzg/t275411.htm World Watch (2006). China Integrating "Green" Concepts into Olympic Venues. http://www.worldwatch.org/node/3932 Spiegel, Mickey (2006). BEIJING 2008 - The Olympic Games Come To China: Will Human Rights? http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/10/06/china14347.htm Dian, Daniel and Price, Monroe E (2006). Narrative, Counter Narrative and the Beijing Olympics: Hearts, Minds and the Projection of Modern China, University of Pennsylvania. http://www.asc.upenn.edu/events/2006/2008olympics_bookoutline.pdf Read More

However, tourist attractions will not only be limited to Beijing but spill over to other destinations in China. Hence, it is expected that tourism will be greatly enhanced in other cities as well. This has led many city authorities to plan for the great event prepare for mass visitors. In fact, many cities have sent representatives to locations like Davos in Switzerland, that has the experience of holding large business conferences, and Canada, Germany and Australia that have hosted Olympics earlier, to understand the requirements of hosting such a magnum event (People’s Daily, 2001a).

In addition, Beijing will also have many more parking lots by 2008. The gas-fired power plant at Taiyanggong will also be ready by 2008 and heating pipes will be connected between the plant and the stadiums (China Embassy). China has already begun experiencing high tourist inflows, in preparation of the Games event. The occupancy rates have increased manifold and five-star hotels, even charging $150 a day, are seeing high revenues (RNCOS). In preparation of the Olympics 2008, Beijing practiced a similar though smaller event hosting in November 2006, with the China-Africa summit.

With about 40 international diplomatic heads arriving at the city, this was a larger official event than any held earlier in China. The event was hosted with immaculate preparations, with traffic planned meticulously, restricting vehicles from outside Beijing and cleaning up the city of beggars (Economist, 2006). Infrastructure China plans $20 billion infrastructure addition for the Beijing Olympics 2008, marking the greatest construction project since the building of the Great Wall of China.

According to the plan, Beijing will triple the express highway network from 216 km to 700 km, lengthen and improve the public transport system in the city and build many event venues. The subway lines will be expanded from 40.85 km to 53.7km. Along with the light rail system, the public transport network will cover 140km in Beijing. The main venue, the Olympic Park will have 37 competition and 59 training centers (People’s Daily, 2001d). Construction at the events sites is boosting local economies.

Stadiums in China are being expanded and built. In Shenyang in northeast China, where factories had shut throwing many people out of the job market, the construction of a world-class soccer complex has boost the local economy. About $43 million is being spent to renovate the Shenyang Wulihe Jinde Stadium to the Olympics specifications. The 60,000 seat stadium was earlier done up for the 2002 World Cup qualifiers and a pop music concert (Asian Economic News, 2005). The physical infrastructure in China is already on the fast track, as a result of fast economic growth over the last decade, and the Olympics 2008 is expected to boost this.

Nearly 100 airports have already been built and the country is having a new power plant almost every week besides new roads and highways criss-crossing the country (Connon, 2006). The Olympics 2008 has already induced a residential property boom in China. Increased infrastructure construction, higher present and expected incomes and increase in home loans have enabled this growth. China aims to build 2.7 billion urban housing by 2008 to provide an additional 23 square meter per person of living space.

The eastern part of Beijing is being developed as the central business district and the Olympic venues are coming up in the north (People’s Daily, 2001c). Economy Since 2000, China’s economic growth has been higher than that of any other country in the world. In fact, China’s contribution to purchasing power higher than that of the United States and more than half the combined purchasing power of India, Brazil and Russia (Economist, 2006). China recorded growth rate of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 9.

9 percent in 2004-05. Of the GDP at purchasing power parity of $8.859 trillion in 2004-05, 14.4 percent was contributed by agriculture, 53.1 percent by industries and 32.

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