Mealtime made more affordable
- Source: Global Times
- [09:27 May 11 2010]
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An employee holds up a menu encouraging visitors to come and dine at one of the Japanese restaurants inside the park at the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai. Photo: IC
By Ni Dandan
Visitors looking to fill their bellies on a budget at the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai should be able to do so for under 40 yuan ($6) a meal as the average price of food around the park has been reduced by some 15 percent, organizers said Monday.
Organizers have brought down the average dining price per person from 45 yuan ($6.70) to 38 yuan ($5.60), but some 30 percent of visitors are still choosing to bring their own snacks to help tide them over as they embark on a journey of more than 200 pavilions.
"The situation may prove to be similar to that experienced at the Aichi Expo in 2005," said Lin Shengyong, director of commercial management for the Shanghai World Expo Coordination Bureau. "Their restaurants experienced a low during the first three months, but were very busy for the last three months."
Organizers said they have lifted a number of restrictions on the 130 restaurants inside the park, 85 percent of which are fast-food chains, in order to help them make eating out for visitors during the six-month party a more affordable experience.
Due to the rules laid out by the Bureau of International Expositions, restaurants inside the park are obligated to pay a certain percentage of their profits to organizers in addition to rental fees, said Lin.
"But we have cut this charge down from eight to three percent to help lower the expenses incurred by restaurants operating inside the park," he added.
Organizers have also allowed restaurants to use their own suppliers instead of sticking with the ones previously designated for restaurants inside the park so long as the raw materials used meet the national food quality and safety standards and their origins can be traced.
Many of the young visitors Monday welcomed the cheaper provisions.
"Prices at tourist attractions are always higher," a man surnamed Hu, in his twenties, who took his girlfriend to the park, told the Global Times Monday.
