The world is trying to win Chinese tourists

Editor’s Note: Pearl Yang is the assistant editor of Island Traveler. She travelled several times to Saipan for story development and interviews for the magazine. During her visit, she was impressed by the stunning views, fresh air and warm-hearted people. “I fell in love with the exotic tropical island immediately,” she said. After writing about Saipan and translating articles from local writers for over two years to help Chinese readers understand Saipan and the CNMI, she came up of an idea: why not write something for the islanders to learn about China, the fastest growing country and the second largest economic entity in the world? After all, a country with fastest growing tourists and a travel destination must somehow create sparks between each other.

Earlier at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit held on Nov. 8-10, 2014, in Beijing, China, U.S. President Barack Obama declared a deal that he said “would improve trade and business ties between the world’s two largest economies.” Under this deal, both the U.S. and China agree to extend terms of multiple entry short-term tourist and business visas from one year to 10 years. The deal was put into effect on Nov 12. After a few days, my friend Sarah shared a photo of her 10-year U.S. visa on Instagram. That day was Dec. 5, only 22 days after.

The U.S. is not the first country that offers the visa deal to attract Chinese tourists. About half year ago in June, Britain announced that it would further simplify visa applications for Chinese tourists and business people, and allow Chinese visitors to use a single application form for processing both UK and Schengen visa. France, however, took the step even earlier. It announced in January that France would shorten the visa application period to 48 hours from 10 working days for Chinese tourists. Other than visa deals, many countries have also taken further steps by increasing direct flights, hiring Mandarin speaking concierge services and enhancing the country’s infrastructure.

Why is the world eager to “lure” Chinese tourists in?

At a forum on China-U.S. tourism cooperation held in Chicago as part of the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade last week, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker said the recent change of visa policy is expected to bring 7.3 million Chinese tourists to the U.S. by 2021, which would likely contribute $8.5 billion per year to the U.S. economy and support about 440,000 American jobs. She also mentioned that further steps, such as expanding airline capacity and increasing the infrastructure investment, is expected to be done to accompany the policy.

Countries that have taken the step earlier such as Britain have already benefited from it. According to BBC News, the number of Chinese visitors rose by 79.1 percent to 196,000 over that period, and “they spent £492 million in 2013, up from £184 million in 2010.”

As for the CNMI, a region with foresight and has given visa waiver toward Chinese, the result is also cheerful. In fiscal year 2014, “visitors from China surpassed other counties, comprising 36 percent of total visitor arrivals.”

But in this intense competition of trying to win Chinese tourists, who can win the most and laugh last will depend on how much efforts that country/region is willing to put in.

Pearl Yang is the assistant editor of Island Traveler. This article is an unsolicited and unpaid contribution by the author. (Pearl Young / Special to the Saipan Tribune)