Written by Dao Shuming
Director General of Shanghai Municipal Tourism Administration Commission

Dao Shuming

Around 70 million visitors will flock to Shanghai in the six months when the Expo Shanghai is held. The pressure arising from huge influx of visitors cannot be easily eased by the municipal infrastructure construction, while the development of urban tourism will provide more facilities for the Expo Shanghai. The development of urban tourism has grown into a significant size over recent years, which may help ensure the success of the Expo Shanghai due to the burgeoning growth of the sector.

The city should make the best of the salutary effect stemming from the so-called“World Expo economy”when the event is over, which will help provide fresh momentum for urban development. Part of the areas earmarked for the pavilion development can be transformed into sightseeing spots in the form of new tourism products, while others can still be used as exhibition facilities to help drive the development of exhibition and conference sector. Meanwhile, the bridges and highways that are built up with a purpose to serve the World Expo can be used to serve the development of tourism sector, further fleshing out the post-Expo effect by connecting the tourism belt in the Yangtze River Delta area.

We should formulate tourism strategies for the World Expo in order to make better use of the positive effect brought by the World Expo on the tourism sector, making planning for World Expo-related tourism fields such as brand extension, image enhancing, the development of tourism products and the training of talents.