Travel agencies seek to attract more U.S. tourists to China

Some tourism agencies attending a two-day major travel show in San Francisco Bay Area are working to attract more American tourists to CHINA.

The booths of CHINA National Tourist Office (CNTO) and a few Chinese tourism agencies are among the most popular at the 9th annual Bay Area Travel and Adventure Show, which opened at the Santa Clara Convention Center Saturday.

"The Bay Area is a very important market for us. It's one of the most affluent regions in the country and people here are generally more familiar with Chinese culture because of the large Chinese community," said Emma Ma, who works for the Los Angeles office of CNTO, which is tasked to promote tourism to CHINA.

CNTO has been an exhibitor at each event of the Travel and Adventure Show in the past few years to promote the tourist sources and travel information to the American public. Between 8,000 and 9,000 people are expected to attend this year's event, according to the organizer.

This year, CNTO worked with three local travel agencies and two airlines -- Air CHINA and Air Canada -- to present various travel routes at different price levels to CHINA.

"The classic destinations for those tourists who have never been to CHINA are the 'Golden Triangle' -- Beijing, Xi'an and Shanghai," said Napio Asahara, manager of sales and operations at Access Asia Tours, a North America-based tour company specialized in customized private tours to CHINA.

"For those who plan to visit CHINA for the second or third time, we have noticed an increasing interest in Silk Road, or Tibet," she said.

Asahara said her company focuses on high-end small tours and most of their clients are retired people who have more leisure time and can afford higher priced tours.

Thanks to CNTO's overseas promotion of the Silk Road tourist destinations in the past few years, several travel itineraries based on the ancient trade route have been developed and highlighted in the brochures at the show.

Ma said their office has recently exhibited at a travel show in Los Angeles and they are going to participate in three more shows on West Coast in the first half of this year.