Visa issues keeping thousands of Chinese tourists from Hawaii
Rejected visa applications are keeping thousands of Chinese tourists from visiting Hawaii.
More than 2,000 of the 6,000 Nu Skin distributors in China and Hong Kong that were planning to attend a conference in Hawaii were not able to attend because of visa troubles, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported. The convention of the direct marketing company that sells personal care products next month is slated to be Hawaii’s largest incentive travel group from China.
Typically, 10 per cent to 15 per cent of visa applicants for large groups travelling to Hawaii get denied, but the Nu Skin rate was significantly higher.
Hawaii and other US cities looking to increase Chinese tourism have been working with the US Travel Association to advocate for visa improvements. Since a 2011 China US Tourism Leadership Summit was held in Kailua-Kona, reductions in visa processing times and the introduction of non-stop flights and longer-term visas helped spark growth.
Some travel officials say they are concerned about the Trump administration’s effect on travel. Reene Ho-Phang, managing director of Hawaii Tourism China, said the executive order limiting travel from specific regions of the Middle East and Africa may not be aimed at Asia, but it still creates unease for Chinese visitors who fear travel restrictions could worsen.
Ho-Phang said the issues with the Nu Skin conference has alerted other would-be tourists of the stress of getting a visa.
“We’ve observed that group demand has cascaded a bit. Word has spread in the industry, and it’s impacting other groups. Some are postponing group bookings by a year,” Ho-Phang said.
The Hawaii Tourism Authority has estimated that if all of the Nu Skin members had come to Hawaii, it would have added US$15.9 million in corporate spending into the state and generated US$1.9 million in taxes. Instead, Nu Skin sent about 2,000 incentive winners to Bali, Indonesia, reducing the group’s benefit to Hawaii.
The state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism has forecast that 2017 arrivals from China will increase 2 per cent to 173,479, while spending is expected to rise slightly more than 6 per cent to US$434 million-plus.
