US visa pact a boost to travelers' spending

As well as South Korea, other countries have also started easing visa policy to cash in on Chinese outbound travelers.

Thailand, for example, waived the need for a visa altogether for Chinese travelers, while Japan has launched a series of Chinese frequent individual traveler visas.

Jessica Chuang, regional marketing director at Hotels.com, a leading online accommodation booking website, says more frequent-traveler visas are likely as countries fight to attract Chinese business.

She says visits to South Korea, Thailand and Japan have seen double-digit growth in the past year as a result. The cities of Tokyo, Seoul, and Taipei have seen growth of more than 50 percent in travelers from the mainland while Osaka and Kyoto have enjoyed triple-digit growth in numbers.

Li Mengran, public relations specialist at Beijing UTour International Travel Service, says the US visa announcement has been warmly welcomed by its clients.

"The US was previously considered as a remote destination, or even a dream for many Chinese travelers due to the distance and complicated visa procedures," says Li.

"The new policy has been a complete game changer, meaning that many will now consider the US as their frequent destination of choice," she says.

"We have seen so many more inquires for our US products over the past month."

Alex Wang, chief operating officer of Zanadu.cn, an online provider of luxury and boutique travel products, says gaining a US visa had become the determining factor for many customers when selecting it as a possible destination. But the expected easier procedures and shorter application time will now prove a major incentive to travel to the US for many.

"In the past, even a slight uncertainty regarding the visa application might push a traveler into making a different choice in destination," Wang says.

Taking the pain out of travel

Louise Liang, a sophomore student at a college in Chicago, often found herself just as busy during her holidays back home in Beijing, than during term time.

But this wasn't study which was taking up her valuable time, this was working to get a new visa. All her other plans including visiting friends and relatives had to wait until she had the peace of mind that next year's study was secure, she says.

She also had to rule out the possibility of taking part in exchange programs in other countries during holidays, because that would have meant she had to apply for two visas at the same time.

Every year her parents, who have already visited her three times in the past year and half, had to spend time getting documents from banks and the companies they work for to complete their visa procedures too.

So the news that during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in November in Beijing, the US and China had agreed to ease visa restrictions on travel between the two countries will be a huge relief to students like her, she says.

Jane Wang, 33, a mother of a three-year-old daughter, also says that with the conditions eased her previous month-long trip to the major tourist destinations of the US West Coast and a short stay in the Hawaii islands will not be enough. The Beijing resident is already planning to travel with her family to the US East Coast in the coming months. The major incentive is that her visa will now last for 10 years, not just one as before.

She still recalls how nervous she was standing in the queue waiting for her face-to-face interview for her last US visa in 2012, after two months of gathering application materials and travel documents.

Wang and her family have spent about 200,000 yuan ($32,300) on their planned trip, ranging from shopping for clothes and toys, to staying at five star hotels, buying the necessary insurance, as well as hiring a car for a trip along the West Coast.

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