chinese market "would fill every single hotel room for years."

The Las Vegas Business Press has a pretty interesting story about the Vegas gaming industry and the one market everybody wants a piece of....China!

Dancing with dragons
Nevada courting Chinese tourists

BY ARNOLD M. KNIGHTLY

One of the keys to a successful business is the ability to lure customers back while seeking out new ones. In Nevada, the business is tourism, and the ultimate prospective customer base is the growing middle- and upper-class of China.

According to a recent report by the World Tourism Organization, China is projected to have 50 million international travelers by the end of the decade, climbing to 100 million international travelers by 2020. Needless to say, Las Vegas desperately wants a cut of that market.

"This market is so huge for us," Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt said. "If only a small segment of that population would come to visit Las Vegas it would fill every single hotel room for years."

Sixty percent of visitors to Macau are Chinese, and Las Vegas officials are hoping to entice them to experience the Strip, not watching dragon boat races.

One of the great hurdles for tourism to the United States from China is that the U.S. does not have an "approved destination" status agreement with the Chinese government. That agreement would simplify visa and passport issues and the marketing process.

According to the World Travel Organization, the Chinese made 31 million international trips last year, but 91 percent were to Asian destinations. They tend to travel independently instead of in large groups. One of the places they visit in great numbers is the growing Asian gaming hub of Macau.

"What Macau is going to be doing in our hotel-casinos there is, basically, getting us a new audience," Hunt said. "Everyone wants to come to the real world, the mecca, and Las Vegas is the Mecca of gaming." Read more.

I swear, every major American industry can hardly contain itself over the prospects of gaining the Chinese market.