Hawaii, California and Las Vegas are among American tourist destinations vying fiercely for a vast and largely untapped new market segment.

Yes, to be a Chinese tourist these days is to be a widely-sought traveler.

Hawaii has beaches and its famed "aloha spirit" as its siren call. Las Vegas offers gambling and its entertainment-oriented attractions. San Francisco can boast high-end shopping and the Golden Gate Bridge.

Attracting more Chinese tourists "will bring back a lot of jobs" to Hawaii, Gov. Linda Lingle said recently, after returning from a tourism and economic mission to China.

About a half-million Chinese traveled to all U.S. destinations last year, and that number is expected to grow by double digits in each of the next four years mainly because of China's growing economy and new wealth, according to the U.S. Travel Association. Tourism officials note that the Chinese middle and upper classes each rivals the size of the entire U.S. population, so luring just a fraction would produce huge numbers.

Hawaii's tourism market has generally been propped up by two regions — the U.S. West Coast and Japan. Both market segments declined this year, as did the number of Chinese visitors — this despite a late 2007 agreement that China and U.S. signed lifting some travel barriers.

To lure the Chinese, the Hawaii Tourism Authority has budgeted a total of nearly $2.7 million this fiscal year for marketing there and in Korea, said David Uchiyama, HTA's vice president of marketing. That includes $447,000 to participate in the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai, which begins in May.

Hawaii's tourism industry knows it needs to make the islands more culturally inviting to the Chinese. Many hotels, restaurants and retail stores have offered Japanese-speaking clerks for years, along with signs and menus in Japanese. Such aid is infrequently provided in Mandarin.

California drew 237,000 Chinese visitors last year. State and local tourism officials are meeting counterparts in China and offering new travel packages that brand the Golden State as a "dream destination."

Las Vegas' marketing efforts focus less on gaming, since the Chinese can easily travel to Macau for that, said Bischoff. Instead, Vegas highlights entertainment and sightseeing attractions, including the Grand Canyon Skywalk located 122 miles away, which was built by a Chinese American businessman.

"Estimates are," Bischoff added, "that the Chinese tourist market is one of our brightest increasing sources of tourists."