China has lost at least $60 million...

China has lost at least $60 million in tourist revenue in Beijing alone since the government’s violent suppression of the student pro-democracy movement in May and June.

“The turmil and riots have caused great losses to China’s tourism,” said Liu Yi, director of China’s National Tourism Assn. “Our foreign currency receipts for tourism this year will only reach half of our planned target.”

According to the China Daily, the number of foreign visitors to China dropped by 81% in June compared to the same month last year. In 1988, China’s tourism industry brought in $2.2 billion.

“A lot of people are suffering here,” said travel agent Rudolf Gutzwiller of Switzerland, one of 400 travel industry representatives China flew in free to Beijing from around the world to attend a conference aimed at luring the visitors back. “For this year at least, tourism in China is finished.”

Added an American travel agent at the conference: “I saw the scars on the concrete from the tank tracks and it reminded me of what I’d seen on television a month ago. Frankly, it was depressing.”

United Express, operated by WestAir Airlines, will inaugurate nonstop service between Oxnard and San Francisco on Aug. 1.

The airline will offer four round-trip flights every weekday and three round trips every Saturday and Sunday. United Express now offers four round trips daily between Oxnard and Los Angeles.

The lowest discount San Francisco fare on the 30-passenger planes is $39 one way, based on a non-refundable, 21-day advance purchase. The lowest unrestricted fare is $109 one way.

London Theatre News, an illustrated monthly newsletter written for Americans by Americans living in London, gives up-to-the-minute coverage of the London theater scene.

Editor/publisher Robert B. Harris, noting that about 25% of all London theatergoers are Americans, said the newsletter offers reviews, recommendations and interviews with the performers.

A hotline service--at (212) 517-8608--will help with the purchase of theater tickets and provide late-breaking theater news and recommendations.

Annual subscription to the London Theatre News is $49; a three-month subscription is $12.95. For more information, call toll-free (800) 228-2028, Ext. 56, or write to London Theatre News, 2651 Strang Blvd., P.O. Box 702, Yorktown Heights, N.Y. 10598.