The Beijing Tourism Development Commission revealed that the city's inbound tourism in 2013 dropped 10.3 percent from a year before to 4.2 million visitors.

Citing the country's weak economy, a strong local currency, and Beijing's pollution problems, the commission said last year's inbound tourists was the lowest since 2009 and the city is now struggling to reverse the drop.

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Beijing introduced last year the 72-hour visa waiver policy for transit passengers but this, too, failed to meet expectations.

The 72-hour visa policy allows transit passengers from other countries to stay in Beijing for three days without a visa provided that they show tickets for their next final destination, which is outside of the city.

The policy was expected to attract 20,000 visitors but according to the Beijing General Station of Exit and Entry Frontier Inspection, only 14,000 availed of the program.

The drop in inbound tourism last year, however, was not exclusive to Beijing. According to the China National Tourism Administration, the country's overall inbound tourism dropped 2.47 percent year-on-year to 118.2 million visitors.

Due to the weakening economy last year and the smog that covered Beijing, tourism experts said tourists from Japan, Russia, the United States and South Korea have decided to veer away from China and go to other Asian destinations like Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Professor Yang Jinsong of the China Tourism Academy (CTA) said China's strong competitors - mostly Southeast Asian countries - have experienced rapid growth in recent years after they invested heavily in inbound tourism development.

He added that Beijing, which he described as a struggling startup in the tourism business, needs to make the city more attractive to Chinese travel agencies.

Experts said Chinese travel agencies are so focused on outbound tourism because more and more Chinese are traveling abroad.