Kevin Langston, Georgia's assistant commissioner for tourism.

Chinese tourists are traveling internationally in greater numbers and with deeper pockets, and Georgia is looking to reap a significant portion of the economic benefit.

China is projected to send out 100 million international travelers by 2020, and most of them could be U.S.-bound, according to a survey by the Travel Industry Association, a U.S. business group.

The survey asks, “If you had a choice of one dream destination, where would it be?"

“The No. 1 choice is the U.S., and the second is France,” said Bruce Bommarito, the association’s chief operating officer.

To solidify the U.S. position in China's growing travel market, Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez in December signed a memorandum of understanding adding America to the Chinese government’s approved destinations list. 

When it goes into effect this spring, this designation will allow Chinese tour operators to market group packages to the U.S. and U.S. destinations to mount intense marketing campaigns in China. 

Conservative numbers released by the Commerce Department say Chinese visitors to the U.S. could increase from 320,000, a record number in 2006, to 579,000 in 2011, an 81 percent jump over five years.

And with the average Chinese visitor to the U.S. spending $6,000—more per visitor than tourists from any other country—making Georgia a destination of choice could be the difference between an economic boom and an epic missed opportunity.  

The agreement comes at an opportune moment in the Georgia-China relationship, as the state is poised to see some of its most significant strategic China initiatives—all somehow related to tourism—come to fruition.

Delta Air Lines Inc. will begin a nonstop flight to Shanghai, China, in March, and Georgia plans to open its trade and tourism office in Beijing around that same time.

Many officials also hope 2008 will be the year when the Chinese government decides to establish a consulate in Atlanta. 

The question remains, though, as to whether Georgia’s blossoming diplomatic and business relationships with China will make it a preferred destination for Chinese leisure travelers. 

Kevin Langston, Georgia’s assistant commissioner for tourism, believes the state will see more Chinese tourists as the agreement shows them that travel in the U.S. is possible.

“This is really going to open the floodgates,” said Mr. Langston, who represented Georgia at the China International Travel Mart last November, the state’s first on-the-ground marketing effort in China.

Mr. Langston said that because of the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, many Chinese have a favorable opinion of Georgia, and he predicted that the Delta flight and marketing efforts at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport will further raise Atlanta's profile in the eyes of Chinese tourists.

The Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau, which sometimes works with the state and will help with advertising at the airport, sent a representative to the show with Mr. Langston in Kunming, the capital of China's Yunnan province, a popular tourism destination.

While the ACVB appreciates the Chinese market, the bureau doesn't limit its marketing to one country.  A broader approach has been increasingly relevant as Delta’s connectivity with the world grows, said Lauren Jarrell, a spokeswoman for the bureau.

Some of Atlanta’s best-known tourist attractions welcome the prospect of more Chinese tourists, but because most of their visitors come from around the Southeast, relating to the Chinese doesn’t seem to be a dire concern.   

The Georgia Aquarium, one of the most active on this front, offers Chinese language assistance in its exhibits and is working on a translation service for its Web site that will include Chinese.

These efforts are part of an international focus that is inherent in the aquarium’s mission, even though in the first few years of operation, only a very small percentage of its visitors came from abroad, said David Santucci, the aquarium’s public relations director.

“The aquarium was built to help attract visitors from around the world and to be an asset for Georgia and a draw to Atlanta,” Mr. Santucci said.

Calculating international visitors is a complicated process with many variables, but judging from online ticket bookings, hotel packages and tourists who come from abroad but book in the U.S., Mr. Santucci estimates that the ratio of foreign visitors could reach up to 10 percent.

Although Spanish and English are the only languages on printed aquarium guides, Mr. Santucci said the aquarium would use Chinese if the demand arises.

The New World of Coca-Cola, the aquarium’s neighbor at the Pemberton Place development named for the Atlanta pharmacist who invented Coca-Cola, does offer printed guide maps in Chinese.

The museum, which moved last year from its Underground Atlanta location of 17 years, attracts about 20 percent of its visitors from overseas, but it’s unknown how many come from China, said Jacquie Wansley, marketing manager for the new facility, which has about twice the exhibit square footage of its previous building. 

Although Mr. Langston feels that prevalence of English in China reduces the need to emphasize Chinese language around Atlanta, some believe it would make tourists feel more at home.

Henry Yu, the former president of the National Association of Chinese Americans, Atlanta Chapter who recently moved to Shanghai, said that Chinese isn't absolutely necessary, but it would be a nice gesture. 

Mr. Yu, a frequent traveler who has informally consulted Mr. Langston on making Atlanta more welcoming to Chinese tourists, said the association hosted more than 20 inbound Chinese delegations in 2007, all of which were taken to area attractions.

Hotels around Atlanta have begun to hire more Asian staff, and finding Chinese restaurants is no problem, Mr. Yu said.  One of his recommended attractions is the CNN Center, where he said the staff has been accommodating toward his Chinese-speaking guests.

The Inside CNN tour, a separate entity from the center and broadcasting company, hosted 4 to 6 percent of its visitors from overseas last year, said tour spokesman Bill McElhaney.  Although he hadn’t heard of the agreement with China, he said the tour welcomes anything that brings in more international guests.

The High Museum of Art is aware of the agreement, possibly because it is preparing to host an exhibit featuring China’s famed terracotta warriors in November.  The High is working with the Chinese-American association to promote this and other upcoming exhibits, Susan Clark, the High’s marketing director, said in an e-mail.

With these and other initiatives as well as the connectivity of the Atlanta airport, Georgia should fare well in attracting tourists from China, Mr. Bommarito said.

But Mr. Bommarito, who negotiated an agreement to market Nevada in China while working that state, said that Georgia could do more.

He agreed with Mr. Yu, saying that Chinese signs, menus, guides and even television stations would be welcoming gestures that Chinese guests would not overlook.   

The Travel Industry Association soon plans to release the results of a $1.2 million survey that will help prepare agencies across the U.S. for Chinese tourists, which he said could “dwarf all our other markets” in 10 years.

Atlanta was the port of entry for only 3 percent of international visitors to the U.S. in 2006, according to Commerce Department figures.  With Delta’s shift from a domestic to international focus, this number should increase, especially with regard to China.

What remains to be seen is how many visitors will go beyond the airport doors and the reception they’ll find when they do.