Can the local tourism industry lure Chinese here?

Can the local tourism industry lure Chinese here?
By LINDA RAWLS
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Monday, April 07, 2008

With the U.S. economy in the doldrums, tourism leaders are pinning their hopes on a country that just a short time ago would have been unthinkable: China.

As recently as the 1980s, all but a select few Chinese were forbidden to travel overseas.

International travelers were almost akin to traitors. Now, thanks to loosened travel restrictions and a growing middle class that craves world travel, an astounding 100 million Chinese tourists a year are expected to travel overseas by 2020.

Every tourist destination in the world - including Palm Beach County - hungers for them.
Working against Palm Beach County: an indifference to sunny beaches. One other problem: "They know nothing at all about you," said Alexander Glos, chief executive of i2i Media of Orlando and Beijing and an international consultant on Chinese tourism. Speaking to Florida's tourism operators, Glos said wooing Chinese tourists away from the West Coast, their traditional point of entry, won't be easy, either. "Everything Florida has to offer they can get on the way - beaches, Disneyland. Why would they come all the way across the country to Florida? "

That doesn't stop local tourism operators from drooling over billions of dollars in potential tourist
spending by Chinese travelers.

"They watch American movies, and they would love to come to America," said Rose Liu, owner of the Lucky Star Chinese restaurant in West Palm Beach. Liu, who came to America from China as a child with her family to escape communism, confirms the World Tourism Organization's finding that modern Chinese travelers are light-years away from the gray tunics of Chairman Mao.

With an almost fanatical appetite for Louis Vuitton purses and Estee Lauder perfumes, Chinese travel parties spend an average of $6,000 per trip, excluding airfare, compared to the $4,000 that other international travelers spend, according to the World Tourism Organization.
"Chinese like anything name brand," Liu said. "In China they will work two jobs just to have a Louis Vuitton bag to show."

What about Florida's outlet malls? "They'd go crazy," she said. "They love designer stuff."
Yet Palm Beach County's premier attraction - its beaches and sunshine - are likely to leave them cold.

"Most Chinese see beach life as a waste of time," said Wolfgang Arlt, director of the China Outbound Tourism Research Institute at the West Coast University of Economics and Technology in Germany. "There are wonderful beaches in China."

Culture isn't that important to them, either.

"Everything with language is no-no," he said.

So what do they want?

"What they do want is to see how America measures up to the American Dream," Arlt said. "They're familiar with the stereotypes of the United States as the richest and most advanced nation in the world, its lifestyle as the holy grail of development.

"And they want to see it in all its brilliant modernity to understand how far China has to go to catch up - and whether the struggle will be worth it."

European priorities
Miami-Dade County has been trying to lure Chinese tourists for a decade. In the past two years alone, the greater Miami tourism bureau has made four sales missions to China.
South Carolina's Department of Commerce opened an office in Shanghai three years ago. California's Palm Desert Chamber of Commerce had an eight-day trade mission to four major Chinese cities last year. Another is planned this year.

If Utah can't lasso Chinese tourists, no state can. Gov. Jon Huntsman, on a weeklong trade mission to China in 2006, extolled his state's virtues - in Mandarin, a taxing language he learned as a Mormon missionary.

Even if Florida Gov. Charlie Crist spoke Mandarin, the Sunshine State and Palm Beach County are at a competitive disadvantage.

"We would certainly welcome the business," said Enid Atwater, vice president of communications for the Palm Beach County Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Like most county tourism officials, though, Atwater believes local efforts should be directed to more attainable markets in Europe, Latin America and Canada. The county doesn't have the budget to market to China without the financial help of Visit Florida, the state's tourism marketing arm. "It will take several years of concerted effort to begin to make a measurable effort," she said.

Added David Semadeni, secretary of the Palm Beach County Hotel and Lodging Association, "There are priorities closer to home just at this time."

Bud Nocera, chief executive of Visit Florida, takes issue with the idea that the state is not actively pitching its attractions to the Chinese travel industry.

"The travel trade in China certainly knows Florida," he said. "We did trade missions for Florida destinations, including Palm Beach County. We found them very receptive."

But he acknowledged Florida's efforts this year are more difficult because of budget cuts and competing demands for a shrinking pool of state marketing money.

"We need to be in the China market now to remain competitive, not only with other states, but with sovereign nations that all want a piece of the Chinese market," Nocera said.

The Burberry lure
Visit Britain plans to spend millions of dollars this year to lure Chinese tourists to the island, where Burberry raincoats are a big shopping draw. Japan - which used to regard Chinese tourists as "illegal immigrants in disguise," as The New York Times' once reported - sent 20 representatives to the Shanghai World Tourism Expo a few years ago. Even tiny Jamaica opened an embassy in Beijing to make it easier for Chinese travelers to get visas.

Korean Air calls its China routes "golden lines" because they're so profitable. Japanese airlines have been fighting over the lucrative China routes for years.

With Chinese air passengers predicted to hit 215 million a year in 2014, Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines last week announced the only nonstop flight from the southeastern United States to China.
The journey from West Palm Beach to Shanghai will be an 18-hour itinerary with a change of planes in Atlanta and a ticket price of $1,100 for economy class.

"We're already seeing more and more" Chinese tourists said Roger Amidon, general manager of the Palm Beach Gardens Marriott.

In December, the United States won approved-destination status from the Chinese government. That opens the door for Chinese tour groups to travel here and for this country to market tours to them.

They couldn't come at a better time. Even before soaring oil prices raised airline fares and kept vacation drivers off the road, the United States had started to fall behind in overseas tourism.
Between 2000 and 2007, the country lost nearly 50 million overseas travelers. The number of international travelers to Florida dipped slightly in 2006, as well.

Of course, Chinese tourists could not be expected to like all they find here.

"Everything in your grocery stores is frozen," said Liu, the West Palm restaurateur. "The Chinese are fanatical about fresh food."

She pauses. Her eyes light up.

"That would mean more business for me," she said.

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