With little over a month until the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai comes to an end, authorities are looking to the Meetings, Incentives, Conferencing and Exhibitions (MICE) sector as one means of minimizing the inevitable drop-off in tourism to the city after the event closes.

"A period of post-Expo depression in the city's tourism industry is very likely, as the attention from all over the world that the event brought will subside," Chen Ping, deputy director of the International Tourism Promotion Department of Shanghai Municipal Tourism Administration, told the Global Times Sunday.

Shanghai Tourism Administration is building up a partnership with the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) by helping it found its China Committee in Shanghai. Founded in 1963, ICCA is a global MICE tourism industry network of over 900 suppliers in 85 countries and regions that assists event organizers in finding the right destinations to hold events.

Events already scheduled include the ICOM (International Council of Museums) Triennial Conference in November, followed by the FINA Swimming World Cup in 2012 and the ICCA Annual Meeting in 2013. "However, none of the events involve more than 10,000 participants," Chen said. "We are looking for more diversified and high-end opportunities."

Facilities that remain on the Expo site after the event ends will be put to use. "The municipal government is planning to convert the Life and Sunshine Pavilion in to an 80,000-square-meter exhibition center, and the Expo Center will become the Shanghai Convention Center," Chen said.

Chen added that, while the number of new hotels, exhibition centers and convention centers in the city has grown by about 20 percent annually over the past three years, the number of tourists has only grown by 5 percent each year, leaving plenty of capacity to hold MICE events.

As well as the MICE sector, the government is also promoting the city's leisure travel sector through hosting the World Federation of Travel Journalists & Writers annual meeting next year. "We will invite professional tourism journalists and well-known tourism publications to come to Shanghai through the organization and promote the city as a great leisure travel destination," Chen said.

"Shanghai will face a downturn in its tourism industry after the Expo, just as has happened with every other previous Expo host city," professor Yang Yong from East China Normal University said. "However, new attractions such as the Bund Origin Project and Disneyland will draw tourists." He added that industry players should focus on the post-Expo period.

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