Tourism is playing an increasingly important role in Shanghai’s economy. Overseas arrivals through Shanghai customs doubled from 890,000 in 1990 to 1.8 million in 2000, and by 2005 that had trebled to 5.7 million. The growth in foreign visitors not including Hong Kong and Macau Chinese or those from Taiwan is even more impressive, registering a 10-fold increase from 460,000 in 1990 to more than 4.5 million in 2005. Those figures only take into account visitors arriving directly at Shanghai from overseas points and not those entering via other Chinese gateways. According to the Shanghai Municipal Tourism Administrative Commission, it actually attracted over six million overseas tourists in 2006 – more than Beijing is anticipating during its Olympics year in 2008.

Although known as a financial hub, Shanghai is part of China’s tourism ‘golden triangle’ along with Beijing and Xi’an and has many attractions: the futuristic Oriental Pearl TV Tower, the classical European architecture of the Bund and French Concession, which hark back to its days as the ‘Paris of the east,’ and a growing reputation as one of the world’s most energetic cities.

Shanghai’s broad appeal attracts a wide cross section of visitors, from mature travellers on escorted tours to affluent young couples on weekend breaks. While most of the new hotels are geared towards corporate travellers, there are a growing number of boutique hotels catering to leisure guests. The big business hotels generally have extensive leisure facilities and spas, with discounted weekend rates to attract tourists. Shanghai has big plans in the run-up to hosting the World Expo. It has set a target of 10 million overseas visitors in 2010, and is planning a series of promotions in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Oceania to attract more tourists. The city had 351 star-rated hotels by the end of 2005, 66 of them four star and above, offering a total of nearly 62,000 rooms. An extra 8,000 rooms are due online by 2008.