Chris Thompson on the impact of President Xi’s state visit on tourism

Global Business

Washington and Beijing aren’t exactly seeing eye-to-eye on certain issues, but the number of Chinese tourists visiting the U.S. continues to boom.

According to Brand USA, China is the fourth largest source market for inbound tourists to the U.S.

Last year a little more than 2 million Chinese nationals visited the U.S. – Chinese are also said to be the biggest spenders among all tourists to the U.S. – with each one spending around $6,000 dollars during their stay. That’s the equivalent of about 24 billion dollars total. The group also expects China to become the biggest source of tourists by 2018.

For more on President Xi Jinping’s state visit and his visit with President Obama and their conversations on tourism, CCTV’s Phillip Yin spoke to Chris Thompson, President and CEO of Brand USA.