The massive earthquake that rocked China's western Sichuan province last week is the latest in a series of misfortunes that together threaten to cripple the country's already waning allure as a tourism destination.
"There are some factors which have impacted business and have made China, at least for this year, a little bit flat," said Larry Greenman, manager of public relations and customer service for Victoria Cruises, which operates river cruises in China.
The factor having the greatest impact on leisure travel to China, according to Greenman and other operators, has been the Beijing Olympic Games being held in August. While the Games will attract one kind of tourist, they also tend to turn off non-Olympics tourists who feel overwhelmed by the crowds and complications surrounding any Olympic event.
In addition, the controversy surrounding civic unrest and clashes in China's Tibet region in March have resulted in worldwide protests, some violent, as the Olympic torch makes its way from Athens to Beijing.
The magnitude 7.9 earthquake hit about 100 miles northwest of Sichuan's capital, Chengdu, possibly killing as many as 50,000 people, according to the Chinese state news agency, Xinhua.
Tour operators in China said that no tourists were known to have been in the hardest-hit areas at the time of the quake.
"Clients currently traveling in China, as well as our staff members, are unharmed," Pamela Lassers, director of media relations at Abercrombie & Kent, wrote in an email last week. "We have also checked with our local office in Chengdu, who report that Chengdu was not badly hit and that road conditions and buildings are fine."
Several other operators, including China Travel Service and Asia Transpacific Journeys, also reported that travelers in China were safe.
Tourists mainly venture to Chengdu to see its panda reserve, where 60 giant pandas are kept. But the high season for panda watching is June and July.
There were also concerns about the safety of China's waterways, which are supported by a vast network of dams.
While the massive Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River appears to be intact, serious concerns about the condition of smaller dams closer to the quake's epicenter were being investigated at press time. Nevertheless, river cruises along the Yangtze were operating on schedule, operators said.
As for the overall impact on tourism, Greenman said that China was just reaching the end of its spring peak season, April and May, when the quake hit.
"The people in China for this peak season have already left," Greenman said. And operators already were planning on business slowing down due to the Olympics.
It's what happens during China's next peak season, in September and October, that will determine how much the country's tourism industry, which has otherwise seen healthy growth in U.S. visitors over the last five years, has been damaged by recent events.
Meanwhile, as preparations continue for the Beijing Olympics, Xinhua reported that no damage from the quake had been found at the 31 Olympic venues throughout Beijing, which is 900 miles from the quake's epicenter.
Organizers said six other venues outside Beijing were also unscathed.
The earthquake did, however, complicate plans for the Olympic torch relay, which returned to mainland China on May 4.
Relay scaled back
The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games said that the relay event, scheduled to go through Ruijin in Jiangxi province on May 14, had been scaled back and that relay participants had observed a moment of silence for the victims of the quake. Donation boxes were set up along the torch relay route to encourage people to help with the relief effort, the committee said.
The Olympic torch relay has been marred with controversy, including pro-Tibet demonstrations that disrupted the relay in London, Paris and San Francisco.
International pressure on China in the critical final months leading up to the Games has mounted since violence broke out in Tibet on March 14, when dozens, perhaps even hundreds, of Tibetan protesters, civilians and police officers were killed, according to news reports. (Chinese and Tibetan officials continue to dispute the death toll.)
Tibet remained closed to foreign visitors, and it was only recently reopened to some domestic travelers, according to operators, many of which were forced to cancel itineraries through May.
Tibet is expected to be reopened to international travelers in June.
To contact reporter Michelle Baran, send e-mail to [email protected].