Travel agencies seek to attract more U.S. tourists to China

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Speakers like travel guru Rick Steves and Wild author Cheryl Strayed are among this weekend's invitees at San Francisco's Travel and Adventure Show. During the two-day event, some tourism agencies are paying special attention to attract more American tourists to China.

A presentation by several East Asian tourism offices, including the China National Tourist Office (CNTO), is helping to promote the region. A few Chinese tourism agencies are also present at the 9th annual Bay Area Travel and Adventure Show, which opened at the Santa Clara Convention Center Saturday.

The strategy is an important one at this moment. A trade war between the U.S. and China has led to uncertainty for the tourism industry. While China seeks to attract the U.S. market this weekend, the U.S. may need to follow suit. The travel news site Skift reported international spending in the U.S. dropped one percent to 198.8 billion U.S. dollars, largely in part to the stagnating number of Chinese tourists.

China's May Day holiday could see a slight surge in Chinese travelers to the U.S., the Singapore-based news site Asia One reported.

For its part, China is targeting the Bay Area, an important region for marketing efforts. "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," said Emma Ma, from CNTO's Los Angeles office, tasked with promoting tourism to China.

CNTO has been an exhibitor at each event of the Travel and Adventure Show in the past few years to promote travel to Americans. Between 8,000 and 9,000 people are expected to attend this year's event, according to the organizer.

This year, CNTO worked with three local travel agencies, as well as Air China and Air Canada, to present various travel routes at different price levels to China.

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

"For those who plan to visit China for the second or third time, we have noticed an increasing interest in the Silk Road, or Tibet Autonomous Region," she said.

Asahara said her company focuses on high-end small tours and most of their clients are retired travelers who have more leisure time and can afford higher prices.

Thanks to CNTO's overseas promotion of the Silk Road tourist destinations over the past few years, several travel itineraries based on the ancient trade route appear in brochures at the show. In the meantime, the industry will continue to wait for progress in the trade war to bring more stability back to tourism between the U.S. and China.

Future Travel and Adventure shows are planned in Dallas later this month, with dates in 2020 planned across the U.S.

(Top image: Conference held by Travel and Adventure Show /Courtesy of Travel and Adventure Show)

Source(s): Xinhua News Agency