2016年CRI U.S. Fashion and Luxury Industries to Embrace Big-spending Chinese Tourists（在线收听）

According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization, China has been the world's largest outbound tourism market since 2012, contributing over 13 percent to global tourism revenue.

Brian Buchwald, CEO of a consumption research firm Bomoda, explained why so many countries have been trying to boost tourism cooperation with China.

"A lot of countries right now are looking to build tourism-related relationships and larger civic relationships with the Chinese government and the Chinese people - given the size of the population, their propensity for outbound travel and given their impact when they make these outbound trips."

He added that Chinese tourists have become major spenders and major drivers of growth for major brands worldwide.

"In the hotel category for brands like Starwood and Hilton and others have really put a focus on the Chinese tourists. But obviously also retail, so brands like Macy's and now Bloomingdale's are coming on very strong."

A number of luxury department stores in New York as well as award-winning restaurants have make good use of the business opportunities brought by the celebration of Chinese lunar New Year.

They either prepared Chinese traditional "hongbao", that is red envelopes with money inside, or offer special Chinese New Year menu and give a nod to other honoured Chinese traditions.

Jerry Wu, Vice President of luxury department store Bloomingdales International Programs, explained what they plan to do in order to attract Chinese visitors.

"I think there's a tremendous amount of growth within China and their willingness and thirst for luxury goods has really propelled a strategic need to cater to them. We are all-inclusive company, so what we like to do is look at the trends of the countries that are growing and really just provide them with experiences, shopping experiences that they would experience back home."

Last year, the U.S. received over 2.5 million Chinese tourists, and the number is expected to reach nearly 3 million this year.

Figures from the U.S. Department of Commerce show that tourism has helped the U.S. create revenues of over 220 billion U.S. dollars and 1.1 million jobs in 2014, with China being an important contributor.

It also predicts that Chinese tourists could be spending as much as 80 billion U.S. dollars in the U.S. by 2021.

For CRI, I'm Xie Cheng.