Average spend more than quadrupled since ’08
The gaming industry, more than many others, recognizes the importance of big-spending Chinese tourists. As a result, casinos go out of their way to court this desirable demographic, with Asian-themed gaming rooms, Asian design motifs, Asian food and Asian hosts. But the United States overall could be unprepared to accommodate the estimated 3.5 million Chinese tourists who choose to travel to the U.S. in 2017, and the millions more who will visit in years to come.
The first non-stop air service between Beijing and Las Vegas promises to be one hot ticket when the flights commence come December.
The U.S. Department of Transportation officially approved the route earlier this month, enabling China’s Hainan Airlines to begin selling tickets, and with inaugural promotional fares running as low as $600 round-trip, awareness is spreading rapidly across China, according to news reports.
The enthusiasm is significant at the other end too.
“I’ve been dealing with opening airport routes for years, American Airlines for 25 years and Hainan for almost 10, and cities are excited when we come in, but I have never seen the red carpet rolled out as it has in Las Vegas,” said Joel Chusid, who heads Hainan’s U.S. operations.
Hainan is working with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority to organize launch events in Beijing and Las Vegas. LVCVA officials and officials from Las Vegas’ McCarran International Airport were in China last week for a World Routes conference in the city of Chengdu.
The marketing effort, however, will carefully avoid mentioning gambling—a sore point for the Chinese government, whose ongoing war on corruption and lavish displays of wealth and spending have battered the Macau casino market.
“It’s sort of the elephant in the room, everybody knows it’s there, but we’re pushing everything else Vegas has to offer,” Chusid said. ”You never even show a slot machine in a picture. Showgirls are OK, but slot machines and things like that are not.”
Hainan, the country’s largest private carrier, will run the flights on its fleet of 213-seat Boeing 787 Dreamliner jets.
The Las Vegas Review Journal cited Colorado-based Boyd Group International, whose CEO Mike Boyd told a recent travel symposium that U.S. airport gateways are “shamefully” lacking in accommodations for Chinese-speaking tourists. There is little Chinese-language signage inside major airports, almost no Chinese-language signage outside the airports, and few informational programs in place in airports across the country.
One international airport, McCarran in Las Vegas, is working to prepare for an influx of Chinese visitors, who are known for their liberal spending and zeal for gambling. But in general, Boyd scolded, “U.S. gateways are unfriendly and unprepared for foreign visitors.”
Travel industry leaders say 20 million Chinese visitors could come to the U.S. through 2026, and hundreds of thousands of them will make a beeline for Las Vegas. The city is expected to capitalize on new nonstop flights between Beijing and McCarran beginning in December on Hainan Airlines, China’s fourth-largest commercial air carrier, the Review-Journal noted.
In his forecast on Chinese travel, Boyd said he expects Vegas to see the sixth highest number of Chinese arrivals among U.S. cities—more than 88,600 arrivals by the end of the year. With the introduction of Hainan, that figure could rise to 173,800 visitors in 2018, almost 294,000 by 2020 and 1.1 million by 2025.
Zhihang Chi, vice president and general manager of Air China in North America, says the number of flights by Chinese carriers between China and the U.S. has reached maximum capacity, though the tide may turn after the November election. Until then, he said, “We can’t open up Denver. We can’t open up Phoenix.”
And as a result, said Boyd, “We’ll be missing tremendous economic impact across the United States.”
Currently, five cities outpace Las Vegas when it comes to Chinese visitation: Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Washington, D.C. and Boston. In 2008, Chinese travelers spent an average of $2,594 per trip. By 2011, that number grew to more than $6,000, and last year it reached $13,490.
