The cost of the Expo tours will rise by 10 percent to 15 percent due to higher accommodation and car rental expenses over the summer travelling peak. According to recent travel consultations, package tours will have a growth spurt from the middle of July to the middle of August.

It’s forecasted that the number of tourists is likely to shoot up in October after taking a dip from late August to early September. Visitors are advised to not make any tour arrangements over these peak times.

More than 120,000 Anhui visitors have been to the Shanghai Expo in the past two and a half months, which is a tourist flow of 1,640 per day on average. So far, the number of Anhui visitors who have booked their Expo tour has topped 164,000 mark.

"These visitors are all on package tours. It is roughly estimated that there has been other 50,000 to 70,000 visitors enjoying self-guided tours within the two months,” says an official from a travel agency in Hefei. For the duration of the Expo, the number of Anhui visitors is expected to reach at least 300,000, including over 200,000 tour groups and other self-guided tourists. In other words, one of every 200 Anhui citizens will visit the Expo.

Because students are currently on holidays awaiting admittance to universities and colleges, peak period for the Expo tour over the summer holidays will not be till late July and will continue into late August, according to a travel agency in Hefei.

Several travel agencies in Hefei have started designing tour route for the last period of the Expo, and it will be available no sooner than September.

Editor: Li Jing

Source: www.cnanhui.org