Beijing, June 18: The severe acute respiratory syndrome will strike off nearly USD two billion from the tourism balance sheet of the Chinese capital alone. Foreign and domestic tourist arrivals in Beijing dropped by 480,000 and 8.7 million respectively in the first five months of this year generating a loss of USD 1.3 billion, a latest survey conducted by the Beijing Municipal Statistics Bureau revealed.
The losses are expected to slow down the city's economic growth by 1.4 percentage points.

Optimistic estimates based on the pre-condition that SARS would be completely under control by the end of June indicate that overseas tourist arrivals in Beijing will fall by 47 per cent year-on-year in the first half of this year, leading to a loss of USD 650 million.
The number of domestic tourists is expected to drop by 20 per cent year-on-year in the first half of this year, generating an additional USD 1.3 billion in losses, the survey said.
The Chinese capital was the worst-hit city in the world by SARS, which first broke out in south China's Guangdong province in November last year.
Bureau Report