America is keen to tap the potentially enormous Chinese tourism market – but US authorities are wary of waiving tourist visas.

Bruce Bommarito, vice president of international market development for the Travel Industry Association of America (TIA), says China in the next 10 years “will probably dwarf any overseas market we may have, with the potential to dwarf all overseas markets combined”.

The number of Chinese who travel outside their homeland each year is forecast nearly to triple by 2020, to reach 100 million people. The US Department of Commerce expects visits from China to the US to grow by 61 per cent over the next four years, reaching 516,000 by 2011– a faster rate of growth than from any other country. Currently, fewer than 1 in 100 Chinese travellers heads for the US – partly because the Chinese Government has not yet bestowed “Approved Destination Status” on the US – a designation that would open the doors to mass tourism from China.

“With the Chinese market, one of the more important things is to get an agreement between the US and the Chinese Government that will facilitate the ability of Chinese citizens to travel to the United States,” TIA president Roger Dow commented to e-Travel Blackboard.

“They have what they call in China ADS, or Approved Destination Status. We do not have that in the US and we need to get something similar to it. There’s a lot of dialogue going on right now. In fact there was a meeting recently in Beijing between the Commerce Department and the State Department and the Chinese government to try to frame something that would work. The challenge is this: they want to make sure they can open the doors, but also that people will visit and then return to China. The Chinese Government is interested in that also.

“If we could get something similar to Approved Destination Status, the potential is enormous. There are 300 million people in China who have enough money and who could come to the US of New Zealand or Australia or anywhere in the world tomorrow. So that 300 million. Right now we have a 6% share of world travellers, but [in the Chinese market] we might even do higher than that, because it’s a new destination. If we achieved 10%, that’s 30 million travellers, which is the equivalent of all the international long-haul travellers that we receive right now. That presents an interesting challenge. The opportunity is so big, yet it’s going to put such strain on infrastructure, number of airlines, number of runways. It’s a very interesting dynamic and I don’t know how it’s going to play out over the next 10 years. I do know it’s very easy to get a visa. I’ve just talked with the Chinese and asked them how hard it was. All those in Beijing got their visa in two to three days and those in Shanghai said it took about 10 days, which is far faster than many other areas around the world.”