Hawaii leaders regard the China U.S. Tourism Leadership Summit in Kona this weekend as one of the best opportunities to push for changes in the U.S. visa policy that has put a damper on the number of Chinese visitors to the isles.

Qiwei Shao, chairman of the China National Tourism Administration, was scheduled to attend the Hawaii island meeting, along with 31 provincial tourism directors and other top officials from China’s major cities and top travel companies.

For the U.S. side, Roger Dow, president and chief executive of the U.S. Travel Association and tourism leaders from Hawaii to Utah, Las Vegas, Orlando and Tennessee were scheduled to attend. The three-day summit concludes on Monday.

In a climate where restrictive U.S. policies have been blamed for dampening tourism, suggested visa reform could become one of the most important action items that leaders take away.

"Visa reform is a critical issue for Hawaii China travel. It’s the greatest impediment to future progress," said Lt. Gov. Brian Schatz, who made an official visit to China earlier this year and has been a strong advocate for increasing travel and exports between the two destinations. "We’ll be able to grow by double digits even if we don’t solve the visa problem, but if we did, growth from that market could be astronomical. (Visa reform) is in everyone’s mutual interest that’s why most Chinese and American officials and businesses have zeroed in on this challenge."

Hawaii and other U.S. destinations hopeful of increasing their share of Chinese tourism and business have joined forces with the U.S. Travel Association to advocate for fundamental visa policy changes and for interim relief. The summit is the first time Chinese and U.S. travel leaders have met since the association published a scathing report in May calling for serious visa reforms.

Reforming "an antiquated visa process that often drives international travelers to other countries" would create 1.3 million U.S. jobs and add $859 billion to the economy over the next decade, the group said in its report, which was reviewed by the State Department.

"We are suffering from self-inflicted wounds," said Geoff Freeman, executive vice president of the association. "The more difficult that you make it for people to buy your product, the more likely they won’t come."

THE Hawaii Tourism Authority has set a goal of expanding the Chinese visitor market from 62,032 arrivals in 2010 to 91,662 this year and 125,394 in 2012. While the goals are aggressive, visa reform could help the state further tap into China’s "unlimited potential," said Mike McCartney, authority president and chief executive.

"Once Korea and Japan received visa waivers we saw significant increases to travel," McCartney said. "Eventually, we believe that China will become a major market area for Hawaii. Right now, it’s like Japan was 25 to 30 years ago." 

He said the summit along with the recent establishment of non-stop, twice-weekly flights from Shanghai to Honolulu and November’s Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation offer Hawaii a chance to extend relationships that ease travel restrictions and make it more convenient for travelers to go between the two countries, McCartney said.

"The relationship between our countries is maturing," McCartney said. "A lot of people see this (summit) as a great opportunity for both sides. The more people work on this issue and promote reform, the better off that we are."

While the visa challenge concerns the U.S. as a whole, Hawaii particularly would benefit from reform since the addition of the China Eastern flight has increased demand for the destination, Freeman said.

"The U.S. is already having trouble handling the current demand for visas from China," he said. "But to date, our government has not addressed the visa issue. We’ve treated it like a reciprocity issue and a diplomatic issue rather than a business issue."

It’s past time to solve the visa problem, said Jerry Gibson, area vice president for Hilton Hawaii, which has been aggressively trying to enlarge its share of the Chinese tourism market.

"For every group that comes, there are some that aren’t able to come into the United States," Gibson said. "For every traveler that doesn’t come, it’s lost revenue for the airlines, the hotels and the eating establishments. This is a really important issue and frankly I’m surprised that it hasn’t been a priority and been straightened out yet."

The State Department said it has taken many measures to keep pace with demand, and will continue to add personnel and expand services, focusing on posts with the greatest resource needs and countries with longer wait times for interviews with consular offices, which are required by U.S. law.

Since 2007, 114 new consular officer positions have been created and the department has moved another 74 existing positions from lower to higher-demand locations, such as Brazil and China, said Rebecca Dodds, a spokesperson for the Bureau of Consular Affairs.

During the next year, the department will create 20 new consular office positions in China and will hire 10 visa adjudicators fluent in Chinese, Dodds said.

Since a typical consular officer interviews up to 25,000 people a year, adding 20 positions would add about half a million interviews, said Bruce Bommarito, a senior international consulting partner for the travel association.

However, the group has asked the department to add up to 437 more consular officers by 2015 in markets like China, India and Brazil where there is high demand. The association also wants the department to extend China’s visa validity beyond a year and make it easier for visa holders to renew them. Better predicting of service needs and motivating visitors to submit applications in the off-season were among the group’s other recommendations.

"Department officials have reviewed the report of the U.S. Travel Association, and the State Department will continue to consult with travel industry representatives as we work to transform our operations to meet the ever-growing demand for U.S. visas," Dodds said.

For instance, the department will continue to send temporary duty officers to manage seasonal spikes, she said. During the past three summers, the department has added supplemental staff and temporarily extended work hours to manage demand in the busiest posts, including Beijing and Shanghai, Dodds said. Interviews also are conducted at high-demand posts 12 hours a day, she said.

At most posts around the world, visa applicants wait less than a week for an appointment, she said. Current wait times for visa appointments in China range from 6 days in Chengtu and Guangzhou, 7 days in Shanghai to 20 days in Shenyang and 27 days in Beijing, Dodds said.

Freeman said research the association collected shows wait times in China are inconsistent.

"It’s up and down in China," he said. "When Vice President Biden went to China, wait times decreased significantly. But we hear that Chinese will frequently call and there will be no wait times available. The wait times never get behind 30 days, but you can’t get an appointment."

Customer service during the visa processing also needs to be dealt with, said C.J. Chen, chief executive of BCM International, a Web design, translation and marketing company that promotes Hawaii tourism.

"Right now at the U.S. consulate in Beijing and Shanghai, there are a lot of people waiting in line under the sun," Chen said. "There are a lot of customer complaints. Since the whole process is controlled by the U.S., Chinese travelers, no matter how wealthy, have to wait and many of them are not used to doing this."

As a result, some Chinese travelers are gravitating to destinations like Hong Kong and Japan where the visa process is easier and visa-waiver countries like Thailand and Saipan, he said.

Although the U.S. is the most frequently cited dream destination for Chinese citizens, the association research shows that France captured 18 percent more visitors last year.Other key competitors include the United Kingdom, South Korea, Turkey, Australia and Southeast Asia, Freeman said.

"If we could address visa and entry, we could make ourselves more competitive overnight," he said. "The demand for the U.S. is off the charts."