Effort may resume in a new form
The state of Nevada will shut down its Chinese-licensed tourism office in Beijing by the end of 2015, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The three staff members have been approved for severance packages and have started preparing their exit.
The closure doesn’t mean the state is no longer marketing to the massive Chinese population, a demographic that is avid about travel. Claudia Vecchio, director of the Nevada Commission on Tourism office, said the approach will be more fine-tuned. “We’re not changing our commitment to China,” she told the Review-Journal. “We’re just taking the foundation to the next iteration.”
The office opened in 2003 and was the first U.S. state to be licensed by China’s central government. Nevada also has representative agreements in Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Mexico, South Korea and Australia and has recently begun working to create a presence in India.
