Wanted in Beijing: Tourists?

Not so long ago, as many as 2 million visitors were expected to descend on Beijing for the Olympic Games. But according to the Telegraph, those hordes have yet to appear—thanks in part to tightened visa restrictions, turmoil in Tibet and the state of the U.S. economy—and the capital’s hotels are now cutting prices by as much as 50 percent in an effort to fill up those empty rooms.

Don’t shed too many tears for Beijing’s hoteliers, though. As the Telegraph’s Charles Starmer-Smith points out, many hotels increased their prices as much as tenfold for the Games—so a 50 percent discount is still a 50 percent mark-up, too.

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