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)