WHILE we lobby, and wait, for a federal decision on the visa waiver parole authority for Chinese visitors to Guam, other tourist destinations in the U.S. are promoting to and courting the Chinese visitors who are already traveling to this country. These people already have visas, and they spend a lot of money here.

Local hotelier Al Ysrael is circulating a copy of a weekend New York Times article about “Chinese tourists with a lot of money” and suggests Guam is being left behind while we wait for the visa waiver. A record number of Chinese visited the United States last year – nearly 1.1 million – and the Times reports that number is expected to almost double by 2014.

We do get a few of those tourists, of course. But Ysrael suggests we could get a lot more if we focused on promoting Guam to them. Chinese tourists spend an average of $6,000 each on every visit to the U.S., a couple of thousand more than visitors from other countries spend on average.

And what do they spend that money on? Luxury goods, in many cases. The Times discusses how high-end brands such as Tiffany, Burberry and Montblanc market to the Chinese visitors when they are in this country. Although Montblanc has some 100 stores in China, it still targets the Chinese traveler. “Yes, we are in the major cities,” Montblanc North America CEO Jan-Patrick Schmitz told the Times, “but when you travel, you’re in the mood to enjoy and experience the moment. We certainly will do more and more marketing toward them.”

One reason is that luxury goods, because of China’s taxes, are about a third cheaper in the United States than elsewhere. Guam has a lot of luxury retail outlets. They should join with the Guam Visitors Bureau in promoting Chinese travel to Guam by those who do have, or can obtain, U.S. visas. Yes, we want that blanket parole authority. But the bird in the hand is the Chinese who can already come here.

Chinese travelers spend more on luxury products abroad than they do at home, according to the consulting firm Frost and Sullivan in the New York Times article. We should make a targeted effort to promote Guam in key Chinese markets – those with visa-granting U.S. consulates – and maximize the image that Guam used to have, of a duty-free port where luxury goods can be purchased at a discount off the price of those same goods in China. It’s not that difficult to get to Guam from mainland china, if you have a visa. We want them to come here and spend some of their money in our shops.