California reaches out for more Chinese tourists

SAN FRANCISCO
February 20, 2013 11:01am

Welcome to California, or, in phonetic Chinese, Huānyíng lái dào jiāzhōu (according to Google.)

Those in the vast California tourism industry may be calling upon Google or other online services to translate to or from Chinese if new marketing efforts pay off.

Visit California, the new name for the old California Travel & Tourism Commission, says it is starting a new $1 million direct-to-consumer advertising effort in China, which will more than double the state’s investment in the market to leverage improved visa application time and increased airline service into the Golden State.

Chinese tourists are now the fastest growing inbound market for California and projected to be the top overseas market by visitor volume in 2013. Research by Tourism Economics projects Chinese visitation to California, which now tops half a million visitors, to increase 113 percent between 2011 and 2015, says Visit California.

The tourism group claims its strategic decision to double its international marketing investment in 2008 has paid off with international visitor spending in California growing to 20 percent of the state’s $102.3 billion visitor expenditures in 2011.

Total revenue brought in by tourism has pushed the state to the world’s 10th largest travel economy, Visit California says. Tourism support jobs for 893,000 Californians and generates $6.3 billion in state and local tax revenues, the group says.