According to the report from CRI, the US travel market was hit hard in 2009 due to the influence of the global financial crisis, with the number of international travelers plummeting. However, the increasing number of Chinese tourists offers a hope that a recovery could be around the corner.

In the first nine months of last year, the number of travelers to the U.S decreased by 7.8 percent compared with that of 2008. However, the amount of travelers from China increased by 5.2 percent over the same period, offering a rare glimmer of hope in the otherwise depressing results for the industry.

Bruce Bommarito, executive vice president and chief operating officer of the U.S. Travel Association, says this is one result of the memorandum of understanding that the U.S. and China signed in 2007 to facilitate Chinese group leisure travel to the U.S.

"I think the Chinese inbound to the U.S. was a big change because the MOU, which allowed approved destination status, really took much more effect in 2009 than it did in 2008."

Statistics from the U.S. Travel Association show that although China was the 16th largest source country to America, it ranked tenth in terms of spending during their stay in the country.