Chinese tourists expected to increase in coming years

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LAS VEGAS -- Chinese are destined to become, far and away, the dominant foreign tourists in Las Vegas, surpassing the number of visitors from any other country, based on estimates from the United Nations and elsewhere.By one estimate, between 5 million and 15 million Chinese tourists will visit Las Vegas annually in the not-too-distant future. By comparison, Las Vegas currently plays host annually to about 40 million tourists, 6 million of whom are foreigners.The reason for the expected influx: a ballooning upper class in China, its members' desire to travel (and gamble) and the easing of visa restrictions on Chinese entering the United States.Casino gambling is illegal on mainland China but allowed in the nearby province of Macau. Casinos in Macau, where an Asian version of the Las Vegas Strip is taking shape, are expected to cultivate even more customers for Las Vegas."There's a lot of excitement about this. It's going to be huge for Las Vegas," said Bruce Bommarito, former director of Nevada's Commission on Tourism and vice president of international market development for the Travel Industry of America.China now accounts for only 1 percent of visitors to the United States.In 2006, the United States hosted 320,450 visitors from mainland China, a 19 percent increase from the previous year, according to the U.S. Commerce Department. Eleven other countries sent more tourists to the United States, but the flow of tourists from those countries is not increasing as rapidly as the flow from China.Among those Chinese tourists in 2006, the Commerce Department estimates -- based on in-flight surveys -- that about 87,000 went to Las Vegas, constituting less than 5 percent of foreign visitors.And here's the number that will get casino bosses, travel agents, boutique owners, nightclub operators and cab drivers excited:According to the U.N. World Tourism Organization, more than 100 million Chinese will travel abroad annually by 2020 -- more tourists than from any other country.The United Nations doesn't know how many of those tourists will travel to the United States. But based on historical data, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority estimates that Las Vegas -- the top U.S. destination for foreign tourists --receives about 5 percent to 15 percent of a country's foreign travelers.That suggests that between 5 million and 15 million Chinese visitors a year will descend on Las Vegas in a few years. By comparison, Las Vegas' top foreign market, Canada, delivered 1.4 million visitors to the city in 2006.Even if the U.N. numbers are wildly off the mark, the number of Chinese tourists visiting Las Vegas is expected to increase by at least several hundred thousand annually, said Terry Jicinsky, senior vice president of marketing for the visitors authority.Until now, the visitors authority has been spending money on plucking the low-hanging fruit -- tourists from Canada, Mexico and Britain who make up 70 percent of foreign visitors to Las Vegas.The agency plans to shift more of its newspaper and magazine ads to China, Jicinsky said, and target a new generation of tourists not seen here now.Today's Chinese visitor is typically a business owner or a high-rolling gambler courted by casinos for holidays or special events, such as Chinese New Year or a title fight.The new market: middle-class Chinese tourists who, like most others, want to do more than gamble or conduct business while they're in Las Vegas.Consider that Chinese visitors spent, on average, more than $6,000 per trip to the United States in 2006, including airfare -- more than visitors from any other country in the world, according to the Commerce Department. On average, Japanese visitors, known for a propensity to buy high-ticket items, spent about $4,300.(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)