The new top prize in the travel biz: Chinese tourists

Hawaii, California, and Las Vegas are among the American travel destinations that are vying for tourist dollars -- make that tourist yuan -- from the largely untapped China customer segment, The Associated Press reported.

Hurt by the recession, which has reduced travel both by Americans and by Europeans, visitors bureaus are ramping-up marketing budgets designed to lure visitors from China. About 500,000 Chinese citizens traveled abroad in 2008, and double-digit growth is projected for each of the next four years, according to the U.S. Travel Association, The AP reported.

Among international travelers, in 2008 France was the world's top tourist location, with 79.3 million visitors; followed by the United States, 58.0 million; Spain, 57.3 million; China, 53.0 million; and Italy, 42.7 million, according to the World Tourism Organization.

Economic Analysis: Tourism alone will not make-up for the 7.6 million U.S. jobs lost in the recession, but the key point here is that tourism to the U.S. has the potential to add millions of jobs in the decade ahead. Here's one example: add another 100,000-200,000 tourists visiting New York or San Francisco each year from China: the impact on those regional economies from hotel, restaurant, and visitor attraction jobs would be considerable.