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Letter to the editor

The newest tourists

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published June 12, 2007

Standing atop the Empire State Building and looking out on the expanse of glinting skyscrapers and miniature yellow taxicabs, Lili Ma had no doubt that New York was the place to be on her vacation from China.

"Everybody needs to bite the Big Apple, " the 36-year-old said with a smile.

Mass tourism advertising for New York - and for the United States as a whole - is still forbidden in Ma's native China. But everyone knows about this place, she said. Her friends all watch Sex and the City, and even her mother has heard of California and New York.

That name recognition, coupled with a growing interest in tourism among Chinese who have seen their incomes rise while travel restrictions have lessened, could bring a fortune to U.S. hotels, tour companies and attractions.

The number of Chinese who travel outside their homeland each year is expected to nearly triple to 100-million by 2020, and American cities and businesses are positioning themselves to profit from what they hope will be a tourist boom. They are establishing offices in China and lobbying the government to ease restrictions on travel to the United States.

"In the next 10 years, it will probably dwarf any overseas market we may have, with the potential to dwarf all overseas markets combined, " said Bruce Bommarito, vice president of international market development for the Travel Industry Association.

While the number of Chinese visitors has been increasing, they certainly haven't been overrunning American tourist attractions. Just 320, 000 Chinese - 1.5 percent of overseas visitors - traveled to the United States in 2006. Of the Chinese who left the mainland, fewer than one in 100 headed for the United States, according to American and Chinese authorities.

But many American entrepreneurs think that number could soon explode.

Rising disposable income - averaging $4, 500 a year in cities like Beijing - has made travel an increasingly attainable luxury, and one that is often viewed as a status symbol.

To mine that interest in luxury, Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co. LLC is planning to open six hotels in China in coming years, out of the 19 it plans worldwide. Executives hope the expansion will help establish Ritz-Carlton as a high-status brand among the Chinese, said vice president of public relations Vivian Deuschl.

[Last modified June 12, 2007, 00:08:40]