The income for the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai over the past three months amounted to less than 11 billion yuan ($1.6 billion), a little more than one-third of the 28.6 billion yuan ($4.2 billion) investment in the exhibit, Shanghai Financial News reported Sunday.

Officials still believe the exhibition will bring long-term benefits to the city, especially to the tourism and retail sectors.

The report, citing a report released by the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination, said ticket sales, excluding 4.44 million free tickets, reached 4.8 billion yuan ($709 million). In addition, food service and retail businesses generated 1 billion yuan ($47.7 million), while sponsorship income reached about 4 billion yuan ($591 million).

The total investment of 28.6 billion yuan covered construction costs of the Expo Park and Expo Village, which cost 18 billion yuan ($2.6 billion).

An employee at the Expo told the Global Times Sunday that half of the revenue comes from ticket sales, and future profits depend on the number of visitors.

China New Service reported Sunday, the 100th day of the event, that there have been about 38 million visitors to the event since it opened on May 1.

"The visitors mainly are domestic tourists," Xu Wei, spokesman for the 2010 Shanghai Expo, told the Global Times Sunday.

About 95 percent of the visitors are Chinese and nearly 80 percent are non-Shanghainese, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

The Expo expects 70 million visitors during the six-month-long event.

Xu said the sponsors have taken a conservative attitude toward future attendance and revenue, but noted that they may end up with a surplus.

Historically, many World Expos recorded a deficit.

The 1992 Spanish Sevilla Expo ran up a deficit of $210 million, and the 1998 Expo in Lisbon, Portugal, ended with losses of $550 million. The biggest loser was the 2000 Hanover Expo in Germany, which suffered losses of $1 billion.

Only the 2005 Expo in Aichi, Japan, made money, ending with a surplus of $90 million dollars.

Early in 2009, Chen Xianjin, deputy director general of the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination, anticipated that total ticket sales would amount to 6 billion yuan.

Liu Yueqin, one of the Shanghai World Expo architects, told the Global Times Sunday that ticket sales slowed over the summer when visitors were held back by long lines and hot weather.

"Take the Saudi Pavilion for example. Visitors had to line up for about eight hours to enter the site. Many visitors complained about the hot weather and long waiting times, which hindered potential visitors," she said.

Officials remained optimistic about the long-term benefits of the event.

Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce deputy director Gu Jun was quoted by China Finance Information as saying that sales volume in the city recorded a 17.1 percent growth in May, higher than the 13 percent growth recorded in the same period last year.