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Say hi! First Chinese tour group heads for the US.
American airline executives were likely smiling as the first group of Chinese tourists to travel to the United States under a new agreement left for Washington, D.C. on Tuesday.
The agreement between Beijing and Washington allows Chinese tour groups to organize leisure trips to the United States and could be a boon for airlines including Delta, which began to offer a daily non-stop flight between Atlanta and Shanghai, China’s financial hub, in March.
“As U.S. airlines ground their planes and axe jobs at home to stave off record high fuel costs, the Chinese … tourist market is offering a glimmer of hope,” the China Daily reported on Tuesday.
The number of Chinese tour groups could grow quickly. Last year, 41 million Chinese traveled outside of their country, a 19 percent rise over 2006, according to Chinese government data. The United Nations World Tourism Organization predicts that 100 million Chinese will travel abroad in 2020, when China will be the world’s fourth-largest source of outbound travelers.
The policy shift was allowed by a memorandum of understanding signed by Washington and Beijing last December.
The bilateral agreement - knows as Approved Destination Status - allows Chinese tour companies in nine Chinese municipalities and provinces to organize leisure tours. Previously, mainland Chinese could only travel to the United States for business or to visit friends and relatives.
Other American carriers welcomed the new policy.
“The Approved Destination Status agreement offers a huge opportunity,” Sidney Kwok, director for the China market for United Airlines, told the China Daily.
“We believe the number of Chinese tourists in the US will see double-digit growth annually,” he said.
Boeing has estimated that demand for transpacific flights will grow at an average annual rate of 6.2 percent until 2026, the highest of any international route. Within 20 years nearly 40 percent of air travel worldwide “will be to, from or within Asia Pacific,” the company state in a presentation to shareholders last year.
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