The number of Chinese tourists visiting the U.S. is expected to grow more rapidly in the next years

As 2016 will be the U.S. – China tourism Year, both countries have launched a series of campaigns to boost the tourism development. Different states in the U.S. are investing more in the marketing activities in China, and New York City as well as California are the most popular destinations among Chinese tourists.

However, America is still only attracting less than 3 percent of Chinese tourists despite the growth of tourist numbers. South Korea, Japan and Thailand are receiving far more Chinese tourists, and the main reason that is the relatively lower costs and the distance between them and China.

With Chinese tourists becoming more affluent and wishing to visit more places, America has great opportunities to become an ideal destination for them. According to the estimations of Goldman Sachs, the number of Chinese visitors to the U.S. will reach 5 million by 2025.

One big motivation for the development of the Sino-U.S. tourism is the facilitation of visa application. For Chinese travelers, they can now acquire a 10-year visa to the U.S., which rids them of the burden of applying for a visa every time they wish to travel to the U.S. Since the new visa policy came into effect, the number of Chinese citizens applying for an American tourism visa has grown considerably.

One significant change of Chinese tourists travelling to the U.S. is that they are travelling more independently. This has also been noticed by the tourist offices in America. In the past years, they were mostly cooperating with the tourists groups from China. Now they are paying more attention to the independent travelers, who have more requirements of the travelling experiences.

Source: xinhuanet

Photo: flickr