'According to the experience of previous Olympic cities, the peak tourism period in host cities comes after the closing ceremony of the Games,' Wang Zhifa, deputy director of the National Tourism Administration, said.

Many tourists not interested in attending the Games would wait until they had ended, with relatively few regular tourists likely to visit this month. He declined to estimate how many overseas visitors would arrive this month, or to speculate on whether the number would surpass last year's figure.

Officials have previously stated that Beijing expected to host between 400,000 and 500,000 overseas visitors during the Games, compared with the 420,000 who came in the same period last year. But many three- and four-star hotels in the capital have complained of low visitor numbers and have been forced to cut room rates to attract guests.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that tighter visa rules for tourists and business travellers, designed to ensure security at the Games, have made it tougher for many foreigners to get into the country.

A big-spending corporate party of 128 cancelled their trip to Beijing after several members were refused visas, said Tom Seymour at Elite Sports, which runs corporate hospitality events.

But Mr Wang played down the visa issue. 'This has not been a frequent problem. Some regular tourists might have found the process of getting a visa a little more complicated than normal, but it has not been a major issue.'

As of Sunday, occupancy in officially designated upmarket hotels stood at 81 per cent, with the average standard room priced at 2,946 yuan (HK$3,360), he said.

Although some foreign tourists might have been deterred by May's earthquake in Sichuan , Mr Wang said the vast majority of popular tourist sites in the province had been unaffected. 'I am confident that all the tourist areas badly hit by the earthquake will be back to normal within three years.'