Case to Feds: Boost Tourism from China

Case to Feds: Boost Tourism from China
He asks State and Homeland Security to speed up visa processing and Approved Destination Status agreement

Honolulu, Hawaii - Congressman Ed Case (Hawaii, 2nd District) is urging the federal administration to expedite the removal of diplomatic and bureaucratic barriers preventing the United States generally and Hawaii specifically from realizing the full benefits of overseas travel by potentially hundreds of millions of tourists from the People's Republic of China.

"As our tourism industry both in Hawaii and elsewhere nationally looks to potential international markets for growth opportunities, the People's Republic of China looms above all other countries," said Case in an October 28, 2005 letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff.

"China has now hundreds of millions of citizens with the desire, ability and means to travel internationally. Of course, being the destination of that travel not only assists specific destinations with local economic conditions, but our country overall with our current and growing trade deficit. This is exactly why countries such as Australia and those of the European Union have so aggressively and successfully removed barriers to outgoing China travel and reaped the benefits of rapid growth in tourism from China."

However, Case stresses to Rice and Chertoff that the U.S. needs to address two major issues that prevents the U.S. from gaining a competitive edge in China's travel market: delays in processing of visa applications by U.S. consulates in China and the need to have China designate the U.S. as an "approved" travel destination for its citizens.

"The principal obstacle to rapidly increasing high-volume tourism out of China to our country appears to be not China government-generated, but long delays in the evaluation and approval of visa applications by our own consulates," said Case who spoke directly with U.S. consuls general and others on the issue of increased China-Hawaii tourism during his August 2005 trip to China.

Case said the consuls general reported "initial application review/interview delays (not approval/disapprovals) of at least six weeks-plus and in (some) cases even longer" that are largely a result of "insufficient consular resources" to process applications. "This is, of course, not a China-specific issue but one which appears to exist in many countries," said Case.

"More specifically, another significant step toward substantial increases in Chinese tourism would be completion of an agreement between our countries under which China would confer Approved Destination Status (ADS) on the United States, as it has on other countries now benefiting greatly from substantially increased China visitors," said Case, who noted that visa waiver status for China would be "the best overall solution" but current law and regulations likely make China ineligible because of a higher-than-acceptable current overstay rate on temporary visitor visas.

Case encouraged Rice and Chertoff to complete "as fast as possible" current discussions on an ADS agreement with China which would otherwise take several years to resolve. "While I'm sure that the specific issues are important, I'm equally sure that significant opportunities are being lost absent an ADS agreement," said Case.

Case's letter to Rice and Chertoff also included a copy of a 2003 Hawaii Tourism Authority report on the potential of the Chinese market for Hawaii which was based on a study by the University of Hawaii's School of Travel Industry Management. The study concluded with a recommendation that "Hawaii's marketers focus their strategic and development efforts on the mainland Chinese visitors 35-54 years of age, who are classified as ‘high' scale income earners" interested in traveling for business purposes and leisure but also hold high expectations and demand for quality services and activities.

http://wwwc.house.gov/case/press_releases/2005/2005-66-China%20tourism.html