Tourism and Travel

Doors open wider for Chinese visits

By Richard N. Velotta / Staff Writer

Chinese models walk a runway in a fashion show during the Governor's Conference on Tourism at Wynn Las Vegas on Dec. 14. Photo by Steve Marcus

A few leftovers from last week's Governor's Conference on Tourism:

Visa progress -- While there are still some scattered reports about Chinese tourists having difficulties getting visas to travel to the United States, Bruce Bommarito, director of the Nevada Commission on Tourism, said that things have improved over the last 18 months and that he has the numbers to prove it.

In all of 2004, there were 280,000 visas processed. Through October 2005, there were 460,000, a 64 percent increase.

Bommarito explained in a media briefing that several changes have taken effect that would result in year-over-year increases in the number of visas processed. Possibly the biggest change is that visas are now good for a year instead of six months.

That means that with a stroke of a pen, one-third more visas could be issued, since repeat visitors -- business people who have reason to make multiple trips -- don't have to reapply.

Another change is that there is a process in place for tour group visas. That means that if a travel agent organizes a trip for a group, the applications can be processed at the same time, expediting the process.

There also is a process in place for mail renewal of visas without a second interview.

Two other improvements are in the initial stages of approval. A special convention visa program is in the testing phases in Beijing. Meanwhile, more visa officers are being trained and will be on the job in 2006 after a similar increase in interview officers in five locations this year.

Another five officers -- each with the capability of interviewing 100 applicants a day -- are planned for the Beijing office.

Bommarito said the Chinese continue to be the highest-spending overseas visitors to the United States because of their penchant for lengthy stays and their desire to shop.

Olympic training -- There's a large count-down clock in Tiananmen Square in Beijing that is marking the years, months, days, hours and minutes left before China plays host to 2008 Olympic Games.

The Chinese anticipate the Games will be an opportunity for them to showcase their nation to the world when athletes -- and tourists -- arrive Aug. 8-24 that year.

When a delegation of Chinese tourism officials attended this year's Governor's Conference, they brought a slick video blending the spectacle of the Olympics with numerous tourist attractions around Beijing and showed it at one of the conference lunches.

Ever since Nevada began operating a tourism office in Beijing in 2004, officials from the state and China have signed numerous friendship agreements dedicating themselves to advancing tourism in each other's countries.

The most recent agreement between the two will help China as the Olympics draw near. The Nevada Commission on Tourism and Beijing's tourism agency signed an agreement for Nevada to assist in the training of hotel managers.

Under the agreement, the commission would work with the state's colleges and universities to set up training that would enable hotel managers to sharpen their skills in handling food and beverage, financial management, kitchen standards and procedures and other hospitality industry activities.

Three-week courses tailored to Chinese hoteliers will be offered next year and in 2007 in advance of the Games.

"The agreement that we signed will help Beijing hotels to offer the highest standard of service they can during the Olympics when the eyes of the world will be watching," Bommarito said.

Loneliest road revisited -- The highway between Ely and Fernley was described in 1986 by Life magazine as "the loneliest road in America." Hoping to cash in on the spotlight created by one of the nation's most prominent national publications of the day, state leaders promoted the 287 miles of U.S. 50 and offered to tourists the "Highway 50 Survival Kit," which included brochures and maps of the area that called attention to Ely, Eureka, Austin, Fallon and Fernley.

Travelers could check in along the road and register for a "Silver State Survivor" certificate signed by the governor and a Highway 50 pin.

The first 500 kits were gone in less than a month and by 1988, the Commission on Tourism had distributed 12,000 of them.

"The Loneliest Road" suddenly had a 15 percent increase in traffic. Twenty years later, the commission again is looking to capitalize on Life's designation with a passport-style booklet that can be stamped along the route and redeemed for certificates, pins and key chains.

The new campaign is lengthening the lonely road to include one of the nation's most neglected national parks, Great Basin, which hadn't even been designated when the original Life article was published.

Restaurant growth -- The National Res- taurant Association publishes an industry forecast each year and, for 2006, Nevada is expected to lead the nation in restaurant sales gains.

The organization, recognizing that eating out has become a part of the Nevada tourism experience, chose the Governor's Conference as the setting to announce that restaurant sales in Nevada are expected to rise 8.9 percent. The fastest-growing region, the Mountain Region, which includes Nevada, will grow 7.1 percent over the previous year's total to $27.1 billion in sales.

Richard N. Velotta covers gaming and tourism for In Business Las Vegas and its sister publication, the Las Vegas Sun. He can be reached at (702) 259-4061 or by e-mail at velotta@lasvegassun.com.

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