Nevada Will Open Only U.S. Tourism Office in China
The Nevada Commission on Tourism (NCOT) will officially open Nevada’s first tourism office in Beijing June 11, becoming the only U.S. state tourism department to be represented in the People’s Republic of China, Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt announced Wednesday. Hunt, NCOT chair, will lead a delegation of Nevada tourism and hotel industry representatives to China to celebrate the opening of the new office and conduct a tourism-building mission with Chinese government and tourism officials and airline representatives.
“Opening the only U.S. state tourism office in China is a big step forward for Nevada because it establishes our presence in this country of 1.4 billion people, enables us to build tourism with this highly lucrative market and demonstrates to the Chinese people our state’s intense interest in having them visit,” Hunt said.
Nevada is the only U.S. state to obtain the required certification by the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) to operate an office in China, an achievement that took many months to accomplish. The agency usually certifies only national tourism offices, not those of individual states or provinces, but since the United States has no national tourism office, Nevada was able to get the permit.
“NCOT has been very proactive in working with the Chinese government to obtain the certification required to open a tourism office in Beijing,” NCOT Executive Director Bruce Bommarito said. “The fact that Nevada is the only state to be officially represented in China provides us the advantages of having a constant presence in the world’s fastest growing economy. We believe tourism between the United States and China will be very significant in the future. China has at least 100 million and as many as 300 million people who can afford to travel, and it is in Nevada’s economic interest to make every effort to earn their business through tourism.”
Nevada is a popular destination among the Chinese, and tourism officials in China say that over 90 percent of the 250,000 who travel to the United States from China go to Nevada, primarily Las Vegas. The other two favored places are New York and California, primarily Los Angeles or San Francisco. Accurate numbers of Chinese visitors are unavailable because U.S. government surveys international arrivals into the United States, and many Chinese travelers arrive in other U.S. cities, then come to Nevada on domestic flights or ground transportation, which are not surveyed.
Operating the new NCOT office in Beijing is Hongxia “Karen” Chen, an experienced Chinese tourism industry official who worked more than 10 years for China Hainan Airlines and managed the airlines’ South Korea office. She was Hainan’s liaison with The Boeing Company during the airlines’ acquisition of aircraft. Chen earned a master’s degree in business from the
Maastricht School of Management, the Netherlands, and lived in Reno while studying English at the University of Nevada, Reno. Her duties as Nevada’s tourism representative in China include working with governmental agencies such as the CNTA, tour operators, airlines and other tourism businesses to develop travel to Nevada through air service, and to assist in efforts to ease red tape for legitimate leisure and business travelers seeking U.S. visas.
“We are working with our federal government to eliminate some of the difficulties that Chinese visitors encounter when trying to get U.S. permission to visit our country and we’re confident that these challenges can be overcome,” Bommarito said. “We support our Homeland Security efforts to protect our country and believe this essential mission can be accomplished without also prohibiting legitimate tourists from visiting the United States, where many Chinese have family and friends.”
The nine-day mission will begin in South Korea to celebrate June 9 the fourth anniversary of Nevada’s establishing a tourism office in Seoul, which NCOT shares with the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority. The annual visit brings NCOT, the LVCVA and Nevada hoteliers and other tourism businesses together with Korean tour operators who arrange visits to Nevada and Korean news media who publicize Nevada’s tourism efforts.
The delegation will officially open the NCOT office June 11 with a ceremony and news conference. During the mission, they will participate in high-level tourism meetings with government officials including the leaders of the CNTA and the vice mayor of Beijing.
Working delegation members, in addition to Hunt and Bommarito, include Nevada State Treasurer Brian Krolicki; Nancy Murphy, vice president of Sales for the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority; Stuart Mann, dean of the William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas; Robert Graff, vice president of Sales and Marketing for Papillon Helicopters, Las Vegas; Tony Lyle, International Sales manager for Heavenly Ski Resort at Lake Tahoe; Daniel Shen, president of Lion Tours and Travel Inc., a California agency that brings Chinese visitors to Nevada; Bill Lang, director of Asian Marketing for the Eldorado Hotel-Casino, Reno; Brandon Reed, general manager for Candlelight Wedding Chapel, Las Vegas; Alex Philby, International Senior Sales manager for the Monte Carlo Resort and Casino in Las Vegas; Carla Fisher, International Tour & Travel manager for NCOT; Limin Liu, China Market manager for NCOT; Chris Chrystal, Media Relations manager for NCOT and Susan Hubert, staff for the lieutenant governor.
Las Vegas radio talk show host Dennis Bono will accompany the delegation at his own expense. Travel expenses for working delegation members are funded by their employing agencies or businesses. NCOT, whose budget is funded under the room tax paid by visitors to Nevada, pays only for its own staff.
In addition to the China and South Korea tourism offices, NCOT also is represented in the United Kingdom, Japan, and, this summer, will officially open an office in Mexico.
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May 19, 2004
Posted in: United States West