Beijing to feel the strain from Olympic visitors

By Ben Blanchard

BEIJING (Reuters) - There is little doubt at ordinary Beijingers' enthusiasm for next month's Olympic Games.

But a whole series of problems that have proven tough to fix could give visitors an Olympic-sized headache, and may put many off coming altogether.

From rioting passengers angry at delayed flights to poor foreign language skills, Beijing's tourism infrastructure faces a huge challenge dealing with their guests -- the ones who have obtained hard-to-get visas, that is.

"The hardware will be there but the software will be lacking," said Paul French, chief China analyst at research firm Access Asia.

Beijing has always known it would have a big challenge on its hands, and started its preparations early, erecting more English signs, correcting the plethora of 'Chinglish' that dots the city, building new roads and expanding the subway network.

But a lot of the preparations are aimed at tour groups, which is traditionally how Chinese go on holiday, rather than individual tourists, the common preference of many foreign, especially Western, travelers.

"From the current statistics, there are less tour groups and rather more individual travelers," admitted Xiong Yumei, deputy director of the Beijing Tourism Administration. "That creates even higher demands on language and reception work."

A much vaunted scheme to provide bilingual English-Chinese menus during the Games is only going to be available in certain hotels, 1,000 or so restaurants and at some tourist hot spots, Xiong said, so many eateries could effectively be off limits.

Of course, all these problems become moot if the tourists don't show up in the numbers expected.

Officials have already admitted that the swirl of negative publicity that has accompanied the run-up to the Olympics due to pollution, human rights, unrest in Tibet, visa controls and other issues, may put a lot of people off coming.

"I think China has a dreadful image at the moment. People are just thinking is this really going to be a pleasant trip?" Access Asia's French said.

"And I think they're putting together pollution with problems with visas with just the whole strangeness of going there and the fact it doesn't look very prepared," he added.

TIED UP IN TRANSIT

Two issues have particularly concerned observers -- lack of English, and the hassle of dealing with Beijing's often confusing and sometimes chaotic transport system.

"Moving about and getting especially to the more distant venues is going to be a challenge. There will be language barriers," said Bruce McIndoe, president of iJET Intelligent Risks Systems, a travel and asset risk management firm.