US hoteliers offering warm welcome for Chinese visitors
US hotel officials aware that the Chinese are coming are increasingly looking to provide all the comforts of home when they check in, including:
—Hot tea in their rooms.
—The option of congee for breakfast.
—Mandarin-speaking hotel employees.
"Chinese welcome programs at…chains like Marriott and Hilton even address delicate cultural differences: No Chinese tour group should be placed on a floor containing the number four, which sounds like the word for death in Mandarin," says the AP.
"They’re very relieved, like finally somebody’s doing these things that make sense," said Robert Armstrong, a sales manager who handles all bookings for incoming Chinese travelers at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York. "Finally somebody’s catering to them."
More than a million Chinese visited the US in 2011, contributing more than $5.7 billion to the economy. That’s up 36% from 2010, according to the Department of Commerce. By 2016, that figure is expected to reach 2.6 million.
In a departure from the traditional Chinese business traveler, a growing number of new visitors are simply coming to America for fun. And they are well-heeled. The average Chinese visitor spends more than $6,000 per trip, says the AP.
By David Wilkening
David
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