GOLDEN WEEKS - Overbooked: The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism - page 226

In New York, business owners were offered a two-day seminar on how to attract Chinese
tourists into their stores. The fee to attend was $900 a person. ChinaContact, the or-
ganizer, promised to reveal the latest data tracking Chinese tourists' “brand perceptions,
travel habits, purchase preferences and service expectations.” Senior executives from lux-
ury companies like Cartier, Tumi and Bergdorf Goodman would share their secrets. One
of the big enticements was the latest calculation that showed Chinese tourists spent $7
billion overseas during the 2012 Chinese New Year. The pitch was simple: in 2015, only
three years away, the Chinese would be the single largest source of international tourism.
Roy Graff, the host of the event, was ecstatic with the turnout: “The guest list read
like a walk up the entire 5th Avenue of New York—top fashion, jewelry and cosmetics
brands, luxury hotel chains and marketing agencies came to listen and learn about China's
wealthy consumers.”