Retail and catering companies, however, have much work to do to ensure service quality meets international standards before the hordes arrive.

Developers of property near the Expo site along the Huangpu River are already reaping rewards, eight years before the event opens. Zhang Yinghua, the sales manager of a residential development on Longyang Road called Oriental City Garden said massive public spending on transportation, parks and other infrastructure projects near his development should attract plenty of buyers and push prices higher.

"Before the announcement that Shanghai had the winning bid, many people showed interests in the development but were hesitant about buying," said Zhang. "Now, they will regret holding off."

With many local residents convinced Shanghai would win long in advance, property prices near the Expo site were on the rise well before Tuesday night's announcement in Monaco.

A project in Pudong called Summit Residence has seen prices for its homes jump 57 percent to 12,000 yuan per square meter in the run up to the Expo announcement.

According to government's blueprint, the Expo site will cover 540 hectares of land, with a 240-hectare exhibition area located on the east bank of the Huangpu River.

Developers aren't the only people expecting to profit from the event.

"The successful bid will fuel development of the local tourism sector for a decade," said Wang Xiangcai, secretary general of the Shanghai Association of Tourism.

He said the six-month event should generate at least 140 billion yuan in retail sales for Shanghai. Government officials expect 67 million domestic visitors to attend the Expo along with 3 million foreign guests.

Yao Mingbao, director of the Shanghai Tourism Administrative Commission, said the city has to make a lot of improvements to its tourism facilities in preparation for the event, including doubling the number of star-rated hotels in the city. But that improved infrastructure will pay off for a long time to come.

"The event will help turn the city into a conference center in the Asia-Pacific region. In that case, Shanghai can lure not only more tourists, but also more business travelers," said Yao.

"The city's exhibition industry is expected to see substantial growth in the next five years," said Tang Qingfu, vice director of Shanghai Foreign Economic Relations and Trade Commission.

Tang said Shanghai will build up more exhibition facilities, form international-level exhibition groups, develop world leading brands for exhibition events as well as speed up the industry's marketing process by 2010.

With a total exhibition area of 150,000 square meters, the city held about 270 exhibitions last year, generating 55 billion yuan in trade volume and 1.8 billion yuan direct income.

As well as building new facilities, local retailers and caters will have to improve the quality of service they offer if the event is to enhance the city's image, officials say.

"The city's retail sector has to expand quickly to meet the increase of visitors," said Wang Liang, of the Shanghai Current Economics Research Institute.

The city's Commercial Com-mission said it will work on ways to improve service, including English-language skills and making quality-guarantees more popular, at various businesses around town.

Traffic jams, always a problem in Shanghai, could be even more of a concern during the Expo, although city officials say they are confident new facilities already planned or under construction will be able to handle the influx of tourists.

"Shanghai is building a large-scale rail transportation system very quickly. The network will be able to carry about 3 million passengers every day by 2005," said Wei Aimin, an official with rail transport office under the Shanghai Urban Transport Bureau.

(eastday.com December 5, 2002)