Reality check: Chinese visitors spend more than any othercountry in U.S.

By Curtis Stone (People's Daily Online) 14:08, April 01, 2017

Recently, China-U.S. relations have attracted global attention. While some find endlessfaults with the trade relationship with China and blame China for America’s decline, weshouldn’t overlook the numerous positive aspects of the bilateral relationship, whichoverall outweigh the disadvantages.

One way to explain this truth is to look at data about Chinese travelers. The U.S. traderelationship with China is helping to create a burgeoning middle class in a country with apopulation of about 1.4 billion people. The growing ranks of affluent Chinese isspearheading an explosion in travel, which is changing global tourism and creating newopportunities for all countries. The influx of Chinese spending benefits the U.S. economy.

China and the U.S. enjoy a strong, close relationship. Each year, millions of Chinese visitorstravel to the U.S., and when they do, they spend big. According to data by the U.S. TravelAssociation, China is one of the fastest-growing inbound travel markets to the U.S. In2015, 2.6 million Chinese travelers visited the U.S., accounting for 7 percent of overseasarrivals. This number continues to grow; and in 2021, the country is projected to benumber one in terms of overseas travelers to the U.S., with 5.7 million Chinese visitors.

Travelers from China spend more than any other country. In fact, Chinese visitors andstudents put billions back into the pockets of Americans, each and every year. Theeconomic impact of millions of Chinese visitors to the U.S. is substantial, and is a testamentto the fruits of the China-U.S. relationship. Spending by Chinese visitors and students,including money spent on U.S. airlines, reached $30 billion in 2015; and the averagespending by Chinese visitors was about $7,200, according to the trade association’s data.

Most would agree that maintaining a peaceful, productive relationship with China is of theutmost importance for the U.S. It is therefore vital to take a step back and examine allaspects of the bilateral relationship, both positive and negative; more importantly, it is vitalfor both sides to find ways to emphasize strengthening the positive over the negative.While challenges exist, the bilateral relationship as a whole benefits both sides, as well asthe world.

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