To take advantage of business opportunities of the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai, 54 international and over 800 domestic travel agencies have launched 30 itineraries for World Expo.

These 30 itineraries include tour products with themes of sightseeing in Shanghai; new Jiangnan tours combined with the tourism resources of ancient water towns in Jiangnan; boutique itineraries to east China; and specific tour products including charter flights, cruises, and excursion trains for World Expo.

At present, Shanghai has ten categories of tour product: festival tours, cruise tours, ancient town tours, folk-custom tours, sports cultural tours, shopping tours, historic architecture sightseeing tours, study tours, rural tours, and urban sightseeing tours. The tour brand for World Expo is focusing on diversity and specific themes by integrating current tourism resources.

To regulate the travel service market the Shanghai Municipal Tourism Administrative Commission has established a website for trade management and a grading system for the Shanghai tourism sector, consisting of three information platforms for travel agencies, star-grade hotels, and inns, with four major functions of trade management, public supervision, social service, and data statistics. The Shanghai Tourism Trade Association will offer basic information on over 800 travel agencies and more than 300 star-grade hotels as well as 4,400 inns around Shanghai for the website.

(China Hospitality News November 17, 2008)