Stretching the reach of Alaska's tourism industry: visa agreement opens doors to more Chinese visitors to Alaska.

• Author: Friedman, Sam
• Position: TOURISM

Lei Guo works in a sector of the Alaska travel industry that barely existed when he first came to the United States in 2003. Guo runs the Fairbanks office of Skylar Travel, the largest of a handful of Alaska businesses that have emerged to serve a recent surge in visitors from China. Skylar Travel offers Alaska tours with bilingual Mandarin and English-speaking tour guides. The company has about twenty employees at offices in Anchorage, Beijing, Los Angeles, and Fairbanks.

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Travel agent Haiyan Jiang, who is originally from Beijing, opened Skylar Travel in Anchorage in 2014, an important year for businesses that cater to Chinese tourists. In November 2014 the United States and China agreed to a reciprocal visa agreement that made travel much easier between the two countries. Previously, Chinese visitors who received US travel visas had to use those visas within one year and could only to visit the country one time. Under the new rules, visas are valid for up to ten years and are good for multiple entries.

The rule change is especially important for so-called secondary destinations such as Alaska, according to a recent US Department of Commerce guide to the Chinese market. Most Chinese visitors head to Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, or Las Vegas on their first trip to the United States. With the long-term visa, these same visitors are more likely to make return trips to check out other destinations, including Alaska.

Back in 2003, Guo was living in China's Shandong Province. It took him about two years to prepare his paperwork to apply for a University of Alaska Fairbanks marine biology PhD program and then for a student visa from the US State Department. He took several trips back to China while he was a student and had to reapply for a visa each time he returned, each time risking the chance that he might not receive another visa. With today's visa rules, Chinese students are given greater leeway to travel to more locations. Chinese university students in the United States are an integral part of the travel industry.

Chinese Hype in Context

For Alaska's tourism industry, an increase in visitors from the second largest economy in the world is an exciting prospect. The United States saw 2.6 million Chinese visitors in 2015. The US Department of Commerce predicts that number will double to more than 5 million by 2020. China is currently the fifth largest market source for visitors to the United States, behind Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and Japan.

The scale of Chinese tourism...