Travel

Relations between countries sour, but Beijing Tourism denies boycott order

updated 6/13/2008 4:51:00 PM ET 2008-06-13T20:51:00

BEIJING France seems to be falling off the itinerary of Chinese tourists, in a display of China's pique at French support for protesting Tibetans and angry demonstrations against the Olympic torch on the streets of Paris.

Some Chinese travel agents have stopped selling tours to France in recent weeks, in some cases removing offerings from their Web sites. Others said demand for such trips had plummeted by 20 percent or more.

"Our business as a whole is now 33 percent lower than that of the same time last year. Official trips, commercial business trips and regular tourist trips all dropped," said Zhong Hui, a manager at Carnival Travel Agency in the southern city of Shenzhen.

France's Foreign Ministry said this week that Chinese officials had issued a verbal order to travel agents to remove France as a destination and stop offering package tours to the country.

The China National Tourism Bureau declined comment, while the Beijing Tourism Bureau denied there was such an order.

The travel tiff is adding new strains to relations already tense from events this spring: China's suppression of demonstrations by ethnic Tibetans, violent protests during the Olympic torch relay in Paris and an ensuing outcry among Chinese to boycott French products.

There also is anger over the announcement by the city of Paris that it will offer honorary citizenship to the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader.