Overseas tourists to Beijing down in Nov.

BEIJING, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) -- Overseas tourists to Beijing were down 8.9 percent year on year in November, as the sluggish global economy has hampered travel demand, the municipal tourism committee said Monday.

Last month, the Chinese capital accommodated 411,000 overseas tourists who stayed in the city for at least one night, the agency said in a press release.

There were 353,000 foreign tourists, down 10 percent year on year, and tourists from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan dropped about 1.3 percent to 58,000.

During the January to November period, the city received 4.68 million overseas tourists, down 3.2 percent year on year.

During the first 11 months, tourists from the United States, Japan, the Republic of Korea and Russia declined 4.3 percent, 12 percent, 17 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively.

However, Germany, which has issued a better performance than most amid the global economic turmoil, contributed 11.4 percent more tourists year on year, it said.

Amid the latest efforts to boost tourism numbers and revenue growth, Beijing announced early this month that it will start a 72-hour visa-free stay policy for citizens from 45 countries in 2013.