China will be the primary business focus of AmericanTours
International (ATI) over the next 30 years, the largest inbound
tour operator in the United States said yesterday.
"Encouraging Chinese travelers to the United States will have a
huge impact on narrowing the trade imbalance between the two
countries," said Noel Irwin Hentschel, ATI's chairman and chief
executive officer.
Hentschel is one of the 25 US executives accompanying US
Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez on a four-day visit to
China. A key focus of Gutierrez's visit is to expand US export
opportunities to China.
"During our meetings with the Chinese vice-premier and the
minister of commerce yesterday, there had been the same message:
the importance of the United States securing Approved Destination
Status (ADS) as soon as it is feasible," Hentschel said.
"Our role as the private sector is to help both governments
finalize the negotiations," she added.
ATI will open an office in Beijing early next year. This office
will be the Los Angeles-based company's first representative office
outside the United States.
The travel operator recently signed a memorandum of
understanding of strategic partnership with Air China to work
towards bringing more Chinese tourists to the United States.
"Our target is to bring 175,000 Chinese travelers to the United
States in the coming four years, based on the United States being
granted ADS within that time," Hentschel said, adding that such a
commitment would generate more than US$500 million for the US
economy.
"We are confident that at least by 2009, the United States will
secure ADS, which in fact is a very conservative target," Hentschel
added.
China and the United States have not reached an ADS agreement
despite a tourism cooperation memorandum signed in 2004.
The ADS system simplifies visa application procedures for
tourists. They can use ordinary passports to apply for tourist
visas if they want to visit an approved country.
China has signed ADS agreements with 108 countries and regions.
By the end of last year, 76 of them had received Chinese tour
groups.
While the number of Chinese outbound tourists tripled to 32
million between 2000 and 2005, Chinese travel to the United States
decreased 5 percent a year, according to statistics from the US
hotel chain Marriott International Inc.
One major reason for the decreasing number of Chinese visitors
to the United States is that the application procedures for a US
visa are complicated, analysts said.
The United States tightened travel regulations after the
September 11 terrorist attacks and required all visa applicants to
be interviewed in person by US consular officers.
"It is a huge burden for Chinese group travelers to go hundreds
of miles for an interview even before they know whether they will
be granted a visa," said an analyst, who declined to be named, with
the tourism research center of the Chinese Academy of Social
Sciences.
China could be a major tourism market for the United States as
restrictions loosen, said ATI, which serves nearly 1 million
visitors annually from more than 70 countries.
"The Chinese spend on average US$1,250 per day on shopping
during a four-day trip. This does not take into account the
revenues generated to the hotels, restaurants and attractions,"
Hentschel said.
ATI is not the only company that has started working on
long-term growth in China "before the floodgate opens." Several US
states, such as Nevada, Utah and Hawaii, have launched various
tourism campaigns in China in hopes of attracting Chinese
travelers.
(China Daily November 15, 2006)