Source: China Daily

04-29-2009 13:46

With 70 million visitors likely to attend the Shanghai World Expo, local authorities are expecting tourism revenue to exceed 300 billion yuan in 2010, up by nearly 50 percent from last year.

Stewardesses of the express train D31 put the Shanghai Expo logo on a carriage window yesterday. The train, which travels between Beijing and  Shanghai, has been decorated to promote the expo.  [Xinhua]

"Tourism revenue will contribute to 9 percent of the city's GDP, and make tourism one of the key pillars of Shanghai's economy," Dao Shuming, director of the Shanghai municipal tourism bureau, said at a press briefing yesterday.

And there are already some positive signs.

Dao said the city's hotel occupancy rate - a key measure of inbound tourists - surged to 65 percent last week, the highest level since the industry was hit by the global economic downturn last year.

"Although it (occupancy rate) was lifted largely by big international events like Shanghai Auto Show, we do expect a gradual rebound of the tourism industry in the run-up to the expo," he said. Inbound tourists to Shanghai fell by nearly 4 percent year-on-year in 2008 in the wake of the economic recession, peaking at the biggest monthly drop at nearly 20 percent in December.