Economy
Zhejiang: Being at right place, right time for traveling
By JIN ZHU (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-05-01 09:08
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HANGZHOU - As a major province neighboring Shanghai, Zhejiang is set to benefit from the Expo in the city this year in more ways than one.
According to a survey from the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination, 80 percent of respondents going to the Expo have plans to travel and 75 percent of them will go to nearby places, such as Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces, of which Hangzhou, Suzhou, Nanjing and Wuxi cities are the most popular sites.
"The Expo is just like a magnificent feast of consumption, in which tourism will be the biggest winner," said Jin Sanmin, deputy director of the Jiaxing Tourism Bureau in Zhejiang province.
It is estimated that 70 million visitors will come to the Expo. During peak time, as many as 700,000 people will visit Shanghai every day.
"When all services such as hotels, meeting rooms, and transportation in Shanghai are full, it is inevitable for other activities to be held in nearby cities. And that is the golden opportunity for developing local tourism," Jin said.
The local hotel industry will benefit from the event directly. In Jiaxing, a city 100 kilometers away from downtown Shanghai, 65 hotels rated above three-stars will become special suppliers for the Expo.
According to previous experience, the Expo powers the economy of the host country greatly: When Osaka, a city in Japan, held the World Expo in 1970, the local economy developed swiftly in the next 10 years and even boosted economic growth for the whole country.
"Due to the Shanghai World Expo, Zhejiang will attract 20 million visitors within half a year. It will spur many local industries, such as catering, tourism, entertainment and shopping," Chen Rufang, deputy director-general of Department of Commerce in Zhejiang province said.
The "Year of World Expo Travel" has also been officially launched on Jan 1, in which more than 50 travel routines connecting Shanghai and other tourism spots, such as the West Lake in Hangzhou, gardens in Suzhou, and the waterscape in Shaoxing, will be introduced to the world.
So far, local travel bureaus in Hangzhou, Ningbo, Huzhou, Shaoxing, Zhoushan, and Wenzhou have already sent special work teams to Shanghai to present their special tourism attractions to visitors.
Dao Shuming, head of the Shanghai Tourism Administration, said that promoting travel infrastructure and integrating the tourism economy in the Yangtze River Delta are crucial. "The Expo not only brings the huge number of visitors to these areas," he said.
"The sharing and connections of tourism resources as well as customer and service systems will also foster obstacle-free travel areas in the Yangtze River Delta, which will in turn help to shape sustainable, healthy tourism for the future."
CHINA DAILY
