Last Thursday, just in time for Chinese new year, President Obama unveiled new directives that would make it easier for tourists from countries like China and Brazil to visit the United States.

 

In a speech delivered from Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, the President announced:

 

I’m directing the State Department to accelerate our ability to process visas by 40 percent in China and in Brazil this year.

 

The White House has also expressed hopes that 80% of non-immigrant visa applicants could be interviewed within three weeks of getting their application. According to China Daily:

 

Charles Bennett, minister counselor for consular affairs of the US embassy in Beijing, told China Dailyearlier that 50 more American staff members will be deployed to the embassy and US consulates in China this year.

 

In addition, more interview windows and buildings will be built and the embassy is considering allowing people to arrange an interview date as early as two days after he applied, he said.

 

But don’t be fooled. Despite the bilateral enthusiasm surrounding these new initiates, the push to expedite visas for Chinese nationals has less to do with improving Sino-US relations than one thing: cold hard cash.

 

According to the China Tourism Academy, 70 million Chinese traveled overseas last year and spent a total of $69 billion abroad, making them the third largest overseas spenders after Germans and Americans. 2012 could see those figures increase to 78.4 million and $80 billion, respectively. That’s a lot of money. Indeed, Chinese tourists are already making their presence felt in England, Spain, Japan and South Korea, and the Obama administration is eager to get a bigger piece of that pie.

 

In 2010, 60 million international visitors came to America and generated over $134 billion in tourism revenue. Just over a million of those visitors were Chinese and each spent around $6,000 on average. That means in essence, every approved visa in China is worth $6,000 to the American economy. These numbers are not lost on Obama:

 

China and Brazil are the two countries which have some of the biggest [visa] backlogs. And these are two of the countries with some of the fastest-growing middle classes that want to visit and have disposable income.

 

In addition to revenue, increased tourism means increased employment. The Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates that a every additional 65 international visitors can support an additional travel and tourism-related job. After all, someone’s gotta make the corn dogs.

 

If something as simple as hiring more visa interviewers and cutting down processing times can allow more Chinese to go on vacation to the US and at the same time create jobs in America, that seems like as close to a win-win as international relationships get.

 

Congratulations Chinese tourists, you’re going to Disneyland!

 

Featured photograph © Tom Bricker from Flickr.

 

Other sources:
http://www.cnta.gov.cn/html/2011-11/2011-11-1-9-50-68041.html