Shanghai planed to build up a large-scale passenger center along the Huangpu River to attract more tourists to the waterscape and to serve tourists better,Jiefang Daily reported today.

Waterscape sightseeing is developing fast in the city with the many accomplishments of water clean-up efforts,tourism officials said,however,those over-water tourism projects are separate,disorder and lacking overall planning and management now.

A passenger center,to introduce all the available tourism projects and services to tourists,will help solve the problem,officials said.

The city's established overland passenger center will be a good example,officials said.Located in central downtown's Xujiahui Area,the center has so far developed more than 60bus travels routes to the city's suburban areas and neighboring resorts and delivered tourists of some 3.7 million since 1998.

To help develop the city's tourism industry,officials said several other centers are also under discussion now,include a tourism products exhibition center to display latest gifts products from home and abroad,a travel quality attestation center to better supervise and manage performances of travel businesses and a travel information center to better exchanges among tourism agencies,catering and transportation services and the conference and exhibition sector to help improve efficiency.

Shanghai's travel industry has developed fast during recent years.During the first five months of the year,the city has received tourists of more than 37 percent of the same period last year.The average occupation rate of local hotels reached more than 70 percent.

( eastday.com July 3, 2002)