A staff member cleans a double room in a newly built mini hotel located in the center of Shanghai city, April 13, 2009. Taking up only about 7 square meters, the room comes complete with all necessary facilities, including a private bathroom. Each such room costs around 100 RMB (14.6 USD) per night. [File Photo: Xinhuanet]

The prices of Expo-themed tour packages may drop somewhat due to the annual high school and college entrance examinations in June, Shanghai's local media eastay.com reports.

The report says the opening of the World Expo at the beginning of this month has attracted hoards of visitors from home and abroad, although May is generally considered to be a bleak season in terms of long-haul domestic travel in China.

Plane ticket and hotel prices have fallen slightly since the May Day holiday, says a senior marketing executive at Yoee.com, a popular online ticket booking agency.

He expects the upcoming high school and college entrance examinations to have some impact on many people's desire to travel. In any case, if airlines expect a decline in customers, the price of plane tickets will probably drop, as is the case with hotels. Therefore, he is confident of seeing an overall drop in prices in June.

Currently, economy hotels take up 70% of the hotel market in terms of bookings. At weekends, it is almost impossible to secure a room in any franchised economy hotel around the various Expo venues.