To this end, Su Guangjian, a standing board member of the Shanghai Tourism Trade Association, on behalf of the Shanghai Municipal Tourism Administration, signed a "strategic cooperative partnership" agreement with Cheng Kuang-yuan, president of Eva Air, Thursday in Taipei.

Under the agreement stimulus measures will be introduced to encourage tours to the Shanghai Expo, the Yangtze River Delta area and Taiwan.

Cheng said that Eva Air, together with its affiliate Uni Air, are leading all Taiwanese air companies by operating 50 weekly flights to 14 destinations in China. He noted that 24 of those flights are between Taiwan and the mainland cities of Shanghai, Hangzhou, Ningbo in the delta area.

Besides, he added, the Eva group operates 42 two-way flights between Taiwan and North America area every week, which makes it easy for tourists from that area to link China and Taiwan in their travel itineraries.

Su said that the Shanghai Expo, scheduled to be held May 1 through Oct. 31 next year, is expected to attract around 70 million visitors, and the Eva group has been chosen as a strategic partner of the event because of its excellent flight safety record.

The package tour will become available in the first quarter of next year. (By Wang Shu-fen & Bear Lee),