TAMPA — China’s new middle class, loaded with more disposable income than ever before, is heading to Florida to vacation in record numbers. They’re bringing plenty of cash and they’re spending it, not at the beach, but at outlet malls and tourist attractions.

To lure them, make them feel welcome and keep them coming back, experts say, put a tea kettle, twin beds and slippers in their hotel rooms and serve them a hot breakfast. Don’t forget to provide them with a map written in Chinese.

In 2010, 102,000 Chinese tourists visited Florida. Last year, that number had jumped to 271,000.

Now provided with 10-year visas that allow them to travel to the United States at any time, more Chinese are taking advantage of travel opportunities once closed to them under the Mao communist regime, said Michael Merner, managing director of Visit Florida’s China office in Shanghai.

Merner spoke Tuesday to a group of tourism marketers during the Florida Governor’s Conference on Tourism, which drew more than 1,100 travel experts to the Tampa Convention Center. Visit Tampa Bay, Hillsborough County’s official tourism agency, sponsored the conference for the first time.

Florida needs to keep up the pace to market to the Chinese or miss out on a huge opportunity, he said.

The recent downturn in the Chinese stock market, one in which very few Chinese citizens are actually invested, has had virtually no effect on tourists coming here from Asia’s wealthiest nation. Nor has the devaluing of its currency, he said. “In terms of Chinese spending power in the U.S., there is zero impact,” Merner said.

To explain the high demand for travel in China, Merner said 56 percent of that country’s middle class consider travel its number one leisure-time priority, according to tourism research. But of the 120 million who traveled outside of China last year, only a small percentage made their way to the United States. Only 12 million travelers took “long haul” trips and those are the tourists the United States need to lure to grow the Chinese tourism niche, Merner said.

Chinese tourists spend $6,000-$7,200 per person per trip when they visit the United States and a good chunk of that is spent on luxury items, like designer bags and shoes that cost about 40 percent more in China, due to tariffs. They also like destinations and tend to travel to more than one spot.

For example, if they fly to Miami, they may rent a car, hit Key West, Naples, then St. Petersburg before heading to Tampa, where they’ll take in the local sights, like Tampa’s Lowry Park Zoo.

This year, Lowry Park Zoo, which sponsored Merner’s seminar Tuesday, orchestrated its first cultural event, called Lumination — a Chinese Lantern Festival.

Not only did it draw Chinese visitors, many of whom had never had the chance to see such a festival in their home country, but it also drew other Asian tourists, said Tony Moore, the zoo’s chief operating officer.

“We’re seriously considering bringing it back in the fall,” Moore said. “Chinese tourism is very important to us and the festival really allowed us to tap into that.”

“Chinese aspire to visit the U.S.,” Merner said, noting that 19 percent of those desiring to travel to this country list Florida as their top choice. That’s up from 18 percent since 2013. So the potential for tourism growth exists, he said.

One of the major hurdles Florida needs to overcome is that right now, it has no direct flights from China, said Kevin Zhou, director of Visit Florida’s China office. Right now, Chinese tourists have to change planes in the Middle East or elsewhere to get here. He said he hopes to see that issue resolved within three to five years.

Source: http://www.tbo.com/news/business/tourism-officials-hear-ideas-on-attracting-more-chinese-tourists-20150901/