Tourism to boom in Shanghai
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-04-01 09:27

Tourism has been recovering rapidly and even prospering in Shanghai as the unfavorable factors such as a fear of a comeback of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) fades away.

It is expected that the number of tourist arrivals in the city in the first three months of the year will be 775,000, meeting the growth rate for the first quarter of last year or up 10.7 percent from the same period of 2002, said information from the municipal work meeting on tourism held Tuesday.

Factors including the increased number of international expositions being held in Shanghai, a closer cooperation among regions in the Yangtze River Delta in tourism, and the planned holding of the Formula One Rally in the city on September 26 have all contributed to the boom and will continue to do so in the future, said Yao Mingbao, head of Shanghai Municipal Committee for Tourism Industry.

Statistics provided by five major exhibition halls of Shanghai and the Shanghai International Conference Center show the city hosted 68 international expositions from January to March this year, up 30 percent.

As a result, the average occupancy rate and pricing for hotel guest rooms with tourist hotels, especially high star-rated hotels, have kept rising.

It is expected at least 300 expositions will be held in the city this year.

Yao predicted that the city would receive 98.5 million tourists arrivals, and would rake in 130 billion yuan (US$15.66 billion) in total earnings from tourism industry this year. And the added value of the tourism industry will account for 6.3 percent of the city's total gross domestic product (GDP).

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