| 2010 World Expo: The Shrinking Expo? |
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A curious case, this one. Yesterday marked the 250-day countdown to the beginning of the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai, but there seems to be some confusion about the actual number of people who are projected to attend the six-month showcase, running from May-October next year.
Officially, the Expo organisers in Shanghai are targeting 70 million visitors during the Expo, although the official website has recently removed a comment that the city expects to receive five million tourists from overseas for the event. Clearly, the vast majority of Expo visitors will come from the Chinese mainland, and some analysts have interpreted the removal of the prediction for foreign visitors as indicative of much lower demand than previously expected and/or the possibility that visa entry restrictions will be in place in China next year, similar to those before, during and after the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
But in an article in today's China Daily, the Expo forecast has fallen sharply: "Even when the World Expo brings 800,000 tourists to Shanghai next year, less than 5 percent of those tourists are expected to check into luxury hotels." Only 800,000 visitors? Is Expo shrinking already, or was it just a typographical error? | |
