Tourists from 45 countries will be able to enjoy a 72-hour visa-free stay in Shanghai with all-round customized traveler services, sources said on Thursday.

Starting on Jan 1, tourists from 45 countries who have third-country visas and plane tickets can apply for a transit without a visa application in Shanghai. The city is the second on the mainland after Beijing to launch the new visa plan to boost tourism.

Shanghai-based China Eastern Airlines has planned a full package of services to make the three-day stay enjoyable for foreign passengers, sources from the company said.

"We have packaged our tickets with services including hotel reservations, car rentals, and one- to three-day tours. International travelers will be able to book all these services from our service hotline or our overseas sales offices," said Zhang Qing, deputy senior manager in the marketing development department of China Eastern Airlines' marketing and sales committee.

Booking services will be offered in several different languages, Zhang said.

The visa-free policy is expected to enhance the development of Shanghai as an international city, and stimulate the city's tourism industry, analysts said.

Shanghai already has a program that allows passengers from 32 countries to have 48-hour visa-free stays in the city.

"The prolonged stay period will enable travelers to have leisure time in Shanghai and other cities in the Yangtze River Delta region," said Gao Jianrong, deputy general manager of Pudong passenger services center from China Eastern Airlines' ground service department.

Nearly 500,000 international passengers traveling by China Eastern Airlines have made transits in Shanghai this year, and the amount of transit passengers is expected to grow in 2013, Zhang said.

"I think it's a good improvement because our visa policy couldn't keep up with the needs," said Jiang Yiyi from the China Tourism Academy.

"Our neighbors in Southeast Asia, such as Malaysia and Thailand, have been loosening their visa policies to attract more tourists in recent years."

"Even Japan started to do it after the earthquake," she said.

Jiang also called for new measures including a more relaxed duty-free policy.

"I often find myself stuck at the airport with boring delays when I transit in Beijing or Shanghai," said Matt Hodges, a British national who works in Seoul.

"I was thrilled when I heard that I can now leave the airport, or even extend my layover for a few days, without having to pay for an expensive visa."

Hodges said that many of his foreign colleagues have taken two-day trips to Chinese cities, and they're excited about the new policy. "It'll definitely give local tourism a boost," Hodges said.

Veronika Karausova, a financial analyst at KPMG in Yekaterinburg, Russia, said the new visa policy is a step forward for China to further develop international relations.

"This policy will be well received by all travelers to China, especially businessmen. I am certainly looking forward to making the most of it in 2013," Karausova said.

James Macdonald, head of UK-based real estate adviser Savills Research China, predicted that lots of tourists, especially ones from the US and Europe, will want to stay longer than three days.

"I believe the biggest impact will be on the meetings, incentives, conferences, exhibitions industry, as it will make it easier to organize events in China while inviting attendees from overseas. This should boost the hotel industry as well as demand for conference facilities in Beijing and Shanghai," Macdonald said.

Shanghai's visa-free policy was first introduced in 2000. The 24-hour visa-free stay is available to all transferring international passengers passing through the city while the 48-hour policy applies to visitors from 32 countries including the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, Singapore, Germany, France, Hungary and Switzerland.

He Wei contributed to this story.

Contact the writers at wang_ying@chinadaily.com.cn and shiyingying@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 12/28/2012 page5)