Chinese Tourism & Hospitality Industry

In Colorado, the Colorado loves California campaign has helped fuel the states economy and generated increased state revenues. Direct revenues related to this particular marketing strategy and indirect revenues have boosted the state economy in a number of different sectors, including the housing market, tourism, retail, as Colorado continues to campaign for entry of California businesses into the market. Just last December, Mayor Hancock and Governor Hickenlooper, along with Tom Clark, CEO of the Economic Development Center, traveled to California in hopes to lure more California businesses.

The overall state is lagging compared to the rest of the US; it’s overall GDP growth rates for 2010 remained relatively stagnant at 1.9%. The state’s current unemployment rate is now the same as the US national average, 8.3% (http://www.colmigateway.com/default.asp).

The state must look to other sources for growth and without the Colorado loves California campaign, the economy would have floundered greater as the state experienced the loss of 3 major companies in 2011, Frontier Airlines, Century Link, and Vestas, although this strategy is debated by former executive of Denver Office of Economic Development Bill Lysaught. (Raabe, Denver Post 7/8/2012)

Colorado’s top industries include Tourism, Real Estate, IT, Professional Services, and Manufacturing (Wong p. 11 Feb. 2008 Experience Wave.com). These economic benefits given the period of time that the campaign has commenced, since 2009 (www.colovesca.com), exceed economic projections and thereby generating the strategy to market Colorado even further, with talks of developing a direct flight from Denver to Shanghai. Much of California’s economy has historically been boosted by the partnerships this state has fostered with Asia, particularly Japan & China, with concentrated populations of Asian immigrants reaching 33.9% in San Francisco (www.quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states), compared to the 5.0% US average.

The latest figures from the World Tourism Organization predict the number of Chinese international travellers will increase from 10 MM in 2000 to 100 MM by 2020 (Xinhua, pg. 2 June 1, 2011, China News Daily) and according to the CTA, in 2011, Chinese tourists exceed the predicted $55 Billion and spent $73 Billion in 2011 (UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, May 29 2012, http://mkt.unwto.org/en/barometer). The majority of these Chinese tourists are visiting cities such as New York, LA, and San Francisco, because these cities also have direct flights from major Chinese cities, thereby funneling Chinese travelers to areas in the US familiar to them while making the travel arrangements relatively easy.

This strategy of installing a direct flight from major cities in China to Denver is one of many strategies the state is currently undertaking to improve the current economic conditions, and the greatest issue will be can Denver build faster than competitive cities while maintaining the natural landscape that has historically attracted travelers to the state.

Reference List:

Michelle Wong, Tay McNamara, Sandee Shulkin, Chelseas Lettieri, and Vanessa Careiro http://www.bc.edu/content/dam/files/research_sites/agingandwork/pdf/publications/states/Colorado.pdf

www.colovesca.com

US Census Bureau http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/06/0667000.html

UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, May 29 2012, http://mkt.unwto.org/en/barometer

China Tourism Academy http://eng.ctaweb.org

China Daily, Chinese travelers changing world tourism landscape
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2011-06/01/content_12624526_2.htm

Colorado Labor Market Gateway http://www.colmigateway.com/default.asp

Hotels.com Chinese International Travel Monitor 2012 http://press.hotels.com/en-gb/files/2012/07/Hotels.com-Chinese-International-Traveller-MapCITM.pdf

Denver Post, Business Steve Raabe http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_21025257/wins-losses-create-debate-colorado-economic-development