A U.S. tourism expert called for more flights and service upgrades to bolster people-to-people exchanges between China and the U.S., while speaking on the sidelines of the 14th China-U.S. Tourism Leadership Summit.
The summit was held in Xi'an City of northwest China's Shaanxi Province on Wednesday, with the theme "Expanding China-U.S. Travel and Tourism and People-to-people Exchanges."
In an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN), Todd Davidson, Board Chair of Brand USA, a co-organizer of the summit, shared his thoughts on the main challenges affecting tourism between China and the U.S.
"Obviously, transportation comes to mind. We are still only back to roughly one third, maybe 20 percent to one third of the flights are back. So that makes it more expensive. It makes it more difficult. The quicker we're able to restore air service to the pre-pandemic levels, I think the easier it will be for travel to occur. I'm optimistic but concerned that we're coming up on the anniversary of 10-year visa validity. So that means there'll be demand on our state department to process those visas. And we're hoping that can be done in a manner that's very efficient and very expeditious. So again, it facilitates travel. It makes it easy and seamless for folks to be able to travel between the two countries," said Davidson.
Davidson emphasized that Chinese tourists are critical to the future growth of the U.S. tourism industry.
"They often say that we won't do business with people we don't know. And the way we get to know people is we travel to meet them, face to face. Once those relationships have been built, and the confidence is there and the trust is there, then we are able to talk about business. We can talk about growing trade and looking at our imports and our exports and the other facets of our economy. So, my being here is simply to share a message with the Chinese government: I care. I'm here because I care and that the U.S. travel and tourism industry will not fully recover until Chinese visitation to the U.S. fully recovers. We need one another in this relationship," he said.
He advocated for exchanges between Chinese and American students as a way to foster better mutual understanding.
"I think one of the areas that we have the greatest opportunity to really capitalize on cultural exchange and people-to-people exchanges is in working with student groups. And they were able to be exposed to different cultures, different ways of life, different ways of thinking than what we may grow up with in the U.S. So, I know there's power in that, and I think the more we can do to grow those exchanges, especially educational exchanges, cultural exchanges, is going to be a powerful motivator for growing the relationship between the two countries," Davidson said.
U.S. tourism expert calls for more flights, easier visas for Chinese visitors
