The Promise of the 2016 USA-China Tourism Year: Strategies to Boost Tourism Exchange
Keywords
USA-China Tourism
Abstract
According to the US National Travel & Tourism Office (NTTO, 2016), travel and tourism is the United States' largest export services industry, which generated a US$97.9 billion trade surplus in 2015. International travel to the US produced US$246.2 billion in 2015, supporting 1.2 million jobs, and China was and still remains a leading contributor to revenues among all international arrivals to the US. For the first time in 2015, China was number one in the world for visitor spending to and within the US, with an estimated US$30.2 billion spent on travel and tourism products and services, up 15% over 2014 (NTTO, 2016). This spending activity was consistent with estimates by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO, 2016) citing China as the world's largest tourism market, which represented more than 128 million outbound travelers in 2015, with a 26% increase in global Chinese expenditures over 2014, spending a record US$292 billion. President Barack Obama and President Jinping Xi announced 2016 as the USA-China Tourism Year, an initiative that celebrated the recent reciprocal extension of 10-year visa validity, supporting increased travel and tourism exports. The two sides agreed to promote, expand, and shape USA-China travel and tourism endeavors, strengthening the bond between the two peoples. It was under this promising backdrop that the 1st USA-China Tourism Research Summit was organized by the University of Central Florida Rosen College of Hospitality Management and Elsevier to support and promote the dynamic hospitality and tourism-related business growth and exchanges between the United States and China.
Publication Date
1-1-2018
Number of Pages
423-425
Document Type
Article
Language
English
Source Title
Journal of Destination Marketing and Management
Volume
8
Copyright Status
Unknown
College
Rosen College of Hospitality Management
STARS Citation
Mejia, Cynthia; Hua, Nan; Wei, Wei; Fu, Xiaoxiao; and Wang, Youcheng, "The Promise of the 2016 USA-China Tourism Year: Strategies to Boost Tourism Exchange" (2018). Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works. 716.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/ucfscholar/716