A
report circulating at the World Travel Market in London last week
warned that Europe's travel industry isn't ready for China. If
that's the case, neither is ours.
More specifically,
the WTM Global Trends Report concluded that European countries
won't make the most of the expected boom in tourism from emerging
Asian economies unless they upgrade their infrastructure and tweak
their tourism products to appeal specifically to Chinese and Indian
tourists.
Anybody glancing at
this report would have to conclude that the U.S. is no better
prepared than Europe in terms of signage, Chinese language Web
sites, accommodations and itineraries. If anything, the U.S. is
probably worse off.
France attracted
more Chinese tourists than any other European country last year,
apparently because it held events in China in 2004 and 2005. The
promotions paid off with nearly half a million visitors from
China.
The populations of
China and India are so huge that even if only a small percentage
travel overseas, in a few years those countries will produce more
international travelers than the U.S. Will the U.S. travel industry
get its share of these expanding markets?
It will be a
challenge, according to Bill Talbert, president and CEO of the
Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau and chairman of
Destination Marketing International, 
who complained during a
hotel panel discussion that the U.S. has to roll out a more
convincing welcome mat to foreign visitors.
According to WTM's
account of his presentation, he observed that, "There are a million
millionaires in China today. India has a middle class of more than
300 million -- that outstrips the number of American
citizens."
And yet, as Talbert
put it, "The U.S. has almost projected an image that
says