Tourists prepare to board buses for a local sightseeing tour in Beijing on June 25, following the World Health Organization's lifting of its SARS-prompted travel advisory against Beijing. [newsphoto.com.cn]

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

As Beijing's tourism authority tries to revive the hart-hit sector out of the SARS shadow, overseas visitors and travel agencies that send tour groups to Beijing will be the big winners.

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 Friday and will continue until the end of August.

"The favorable polices will help accelerate the rebounding speed of Beijing's tourism sector, the worst-hit industry during the SARS disaster,'' 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.

Tourists and staff members of the Summer Palace celebrate, Tuesday, June 24, 2003 in Beijing. [AP Photo]

To help ease any frustration associated with travelling 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.

Gu Xiaoyuan, the vice-director of the city's tourism bureau, said the delegation will plug Beijing abroad.

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.

The city's tourism industry generated 118.8 billion yuan (US$14.3 billion) in revenue last year.

Overseas visitors contributed 3.1 billion yuan (US$374 million) to the total.

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