The San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau (SFCVB), in partnership with San Francisco International Airport (SFO), has opened its second representation office in China, this one in Beijing. Recognizing that the outbound Chinese travel market has enormous potential, the SFCVB first retained representation services in 1999 in Shanghai, making San Francisco the first US city to have representation services in mainland China.

San Francisco’s representatives in both Shanghai and Beijing work to promote San Francisco to the professional travel trade, consumers, media and airlines. They aid airlines promoting service to San Francisco, encourage press coverage of the region and assist the travel trade with information to help them generate increased bookings to San Francisco. This includes business travel, technical visits and convention attendance as well as the burgeoning leisure travel market.

Many conventions in San Francisco have a very high percentage of international attendees, particularly in the medical and high-tech fields. This segment presents a great opportunity to expand the delegations that come from China, said Deborah Reinow, vice president tourism for the SFCVB.

“As China has expanded the ease in which its citizens can travel abroad, it appears increasingly likely that the US will receive approved destination status. This will make travel to the United States much easier and provide certification to tour operators to offer outbound tours to the destination. As the restrictions lift, San Francisco will be the natural beneficiary of exponentially increased traffic, Reinow said.

San Francisco International Airport currently has 21 non-stop flights from China including United Airlines’ daily non-stop service from Shanghai and Beijing and a non-stop Air China flight from Beijing.

We are confident that this service will increase over time, said Kandace Bender, SFO deputy airport director communications and marketing. The new International terminal, opened in 2000, has 24 international gates with easy domestic connections under one roof. Our airport has garnered a sterling reputation as the preferred gateway to the US due to its facilities and well known expedited immigration processing.”

China has a population of 1.3 billion people. It is estimated that more than 225 million have the resources to travel internationally in the near term. In 2005, San Francisco received more than 70,000 visitors from China. That number is expected to have double-digit growth annually over the next few years.