CRI听力: Travel Agencies Expects High Earns During the Expo

During its six-month-long operation, the 2010 Shanghai expo is expected to attract millions of visitors from home and abroad. As our reporter Yao Yongmei finds out, the world expo not only get people more familiar with China's eastern metropolis of Shanghai, but also brings huge profits for travel operators.

Zhao Ying, a local Shanghai tour guide, led a group of 14 tourists from Taiwan to the 2010 World Expo on May 1, the first day of the park's formal operation.

"The tourists, either family members or office colleagues, ordered the tickets online several months ago for the visit to the Expo park on the opening day."

After entering the park through the long queues at the entrances, Zhao Ying introduced them to the highlights of the Expo before guiding them to the pavilions where they booked visits in advance. She said during the Expo, her workload is expected to be much heavier.

"Before, I only worked about two weeks a month on average. But now, as long as I am not on sick leave, I will be here every day."

Zhao Ying was not sure how many tourists she would serve in the following months, but she said her tour company is thoroughly booked until June.

Zhao Ying's company carried more than 60 groups to the Expo site on the first day of the opening, as part of the over 200,000 visitors in total. More than 70 million visits to the site are expected before the Expo ends on October 31, including 3.5 million by overseas tourists.

Tang Lan, sales director of Ctrip.com, a leading internet-based travel agency headquartered in Shanghai, believes the Expo will bring huge opportunities to his company as well as all domestic tourism-related sectors.

"Tourist inflow will not only contribute to the revenue rise from Expo ticket sales, but also benefit transport and hotel industries. Visitors from other parts of China and abroad may also want to tour scenic spots near Shanghai."

He said travel agencies can increase profits by designing Expo tours into certain product packages.

"We can not only offer an Expo tour guide, but also extend our services into areas like hotel and air ticket booking. In addition, we can also incorporate the Expo site visit with tours around places of interest in and out of the city."

Since the Expo will last for half a year, Tang Lan expects tourism enterprises can earn more from the expo than during the 2008 Olympic Games hosted by Beijing. But he also points out that the Expo will also challenge the organizers in terms of managing visitor flow, offering long-lasting high-quality services and improving park facilities.

For CRI, I'm Yao Yongmei.