A delegation of local leaders assembled by the Daytona Beach Area Chamber of Commerce returned from a recent trip to China and urged the Volusia County Council last week to get in on the "ground floor" of a new relationship that could open up a wealth of partnership opportunities with the Asian country.

Story continues below ↓

advertisement | your ad here

"We're talking about our goods being imported into China. Selling into China. They have 1.3 billion people and they can't supply the needs," Chamber President Larry McKinney told council members during a presentation on the trip's results. "And we want to bring their tourists here."

Prior to the trip, some County Council members -- including Andy Kelly -- questioned whether Volusia County should be making sales "cold calls" halfway around the world and wondered if taxpayers should be footing the bill to send County Manager Jim Dinneen along.

But comments by McKinney and Dinneen after the trip changed Kelly's mind, and convinced Councilwoman Pat Northey that Dinneen's presence on the trip was important.

McKinney said Dinneen "led the way" with officials in the Communist-controlled country earlier this month and he's hoping one or all of the council will attend the next trip to the country scheduled for Oct. 15, 2010.

In China, it's not the business community that rules. It's the government, McKinney said. And having a high-ranking government official to deal with mattered greatly to Chinese officials, he said.

While the China trip didn't generate actual sales as during a recent economic development trip to Amsterdam, McKinney and Dinneen called it an educational experience that now has them thinking even bigger.

What the pair found on the trip that included 120 representatives of five Florida chambers of commerce and 25 businesses was a country "looking a lot farther down the road than we are," McKinney said.

China is growing at a light-speed pace and is looking for the right partners to help them meet the consumption and recreation demands they face, Dinneen and McKinney said.

"Capitalism is unbelievable there," Dinneen said.

TIMING IS RIPE

Dinneen said the trip was an "eye-opener" and he now thinks "we underestimated eco-tourism."

"I'm used to a good environment and wildlife wherever I go (in America)," Dinneen said, "but (in China) we didn't see the sun for nine days, that's how bad their air pollution is."

The Americans' tour guides joked that the most wildlife visitors to China can see are a few "scared squirrels," Dinneen and McKinney said.

They didn't even see that.

"If you could get a tiny portion of these people, you would get some of the dollars coming back into this country," Dinneen said. "What we have that they don't have and you can't manufacture is blue skies, uncrowded highways, clean air and wildlife in our environment."

But to get a piece of the pie, Dinneen said officials will have to move fast to establish the area as a recognized and trusted vacation destination to the Chinese.

The timing is ripe because only a few American cities and businesses are so far taking advantage of the decision of the Chinese government -- which controls the nation's travel agencies -- earlier this year to allow U.S.-based advertising in its borders, Dinneen and McKinney said.

"They have 100 million tourists that are leaving China by 2013 and they are going somewhere," McKinney said.

DELEGATION COMING

The first steps toward tapping into the Chinese tourism and import market could take place in just a few months when a group of Chinese government elites are scheduled to come here, officials said.

So far, Chinese officials have requested that Volusia County officials prepare an itinerary and budget for a visit to the area early next year.

In addition to slippers in their motel rooms, Chinese food to eat and a Chinese-speaking tour guide, Chinese officials said they wanted to see Walt Disney World, NASA, and NASCAR while they're here. They want access to medicine, cosmetics and gambling. And they've asked to see alligators, the St. Johns River, experience an airboat ride and to be shown the highlights of Volusia's ecotourim offerings.

On the business side of things, McKinney and Dinneen said Chinese officials told them they're looking for solutions to meet some key consumer needs in their country.

The country needs medical and pharmaceutical solutions and currently imports 80 percent of those needs now. China will soon be the top market for automobile sales, and the country is in dire need of help to educate their young people, local officials were told on their trip.

"They have 200 million elementary schoolchildren that they can't possibly educate in the way they want. So they are begging for colleges and universities to enter into partnerships -- even (including) online," McKinney said.

Solar energy and clean drinking water are also areas where Americans might be able to cash in on business with the Chinese, McKinney and Dinneen were told.

It all sounds promising, Northey and Kelly said. But for the situation to reach its potential there will be costs -- and that means risk.

Chinese delegates will foot the bill for their visit to Volusia early next year, but county officials won't likely escape internal costs that could arise in preparing for the international visitors. And the cost of sending more representatives back across the globe next October has yet to be considered.

Dinneen's recent trip to China cost $1,899, a price tag that McKinney said included eight nights in four- and five-star hotels, meals, air travel, and admission to the places and attractions they visited while there.

Only time will tell if the efforts were worthwhile, council members said.

"China wasn't the first place I would've looked to for economic development opportunities, but it sounds like there may be great potential there," Kelly said. "I just hope that potential will become reality for us in the long-run."

heather.scofield@news-jrnl.com

Click here to view the story and any reader comments.

Discuss Story On Newsvine
Rate Story:
View popularLowHigh
Email
Instant Message
Print