China's popularity among U.S. travelers continues to grow

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People in the San Francisco Bay Area continue to show a growing interest in visiting China and exploring the country's culture, history, natural wonders and lifestyle, say U.S. tour operators.

At the just-concluded annual Bay Area Travel and Adventure Show in Santa Clara, California, many visitors stopped at the booth of Alex Wang, a travel agency owner. They took brochures or asked him questions about the travel itineraries the company provided.

"We have attended the show for several years to promote our travel products. There's an increasing interest from Americans, including Chinese-Americans in the Bay Area," says Wang, president of Chinatour.com, a Southern California-based tour operator.

The City Wall of Xi'an, northwest China's Shaanxi Province. /VCG Photo

In front of a big picture of Beijing's Temple of Heaven, Wang handed out thousands of brochures and flyers at the recent two-day exhibition.

"We provide both high-end luxury tours and budget tours for young people," he says. "Customers who are retired tend to choose long-haul tours, such as our Yangtze River cruise, which is very popular. Young people are usually attracted to short tours, such as week-long visits to Beijing, Shanghai and Xi'an."

The booths of the China National Tourist Office (CNTO) and a few Chinese tourist agencies were among the most popular. People even waited in a line to get a free souvenir, such as Chinese zodiac bookmarks and panda calendars.

The Three Gorges of the Yangtze River. /VCG Photo

Cynthia Chang, who received a bookmark, says she had always wanted to visit her father's hometown in East China's Jiangsu province. As a second-generation Chinese-American, she says what attracted her the most was China's history and culture, as well as the food.

"The Bay Area is a very important market for us. It's one of the most affluent regions in the country and people here are generally more familiar with Chinese culture because of the large Chinese community," says Emma Ma, who works for the Los Angeles branch of the CNTO, which promotes tourism to China.

The CNTO has been an exhibitor at each event of the travel and adventure show to promote Chinese tourism and travel information to American people, according to Ma.

"The classic destinations for those tourists who have never been to China are the 'Golden Triangle' – Beijing, Xi'an and Shanghai," says Napio Asahara, manager of sales and operations at Access Asia Tours, a North America-based tour company specializing in customized private tours to China.

Shanghai at dawn. /VCG Photo

China's inbound tourism remained steady in 2018 when a total of 141 million visitors were recorded, a rise of 1.2 percent year-on-year, according to figures from China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

More than five million people traveled between China and the U.S. in 2016, which was designated as the U.S.-China Tourism Year by both countries.

(Cover: Temple of Heaven, Beijing. /VCG Photo)

Source(s): China Daily