Shopping Centers Today is the news magazine of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)
Issue link: https://sct.epubxp.com/i/58695
for tourism overall and especially for retailers," said Rosemary McCormick, president of Shop America Alliance. "When visas are challenging to obtain, international travelers simply choose other countries where visas aren't re- quired, and this leads to fewer travelers to the U.S.A. — and fewer shoppers." Travelers to the U.S. spend about $4,000 each per trip when they come here, about a third of it on shopping, ac- cording to McCormick. U.S. shopping centers are gear- ing up to expand programs that already cater to these two zealous shopping cultures, particularly centers in Florida, the most popu- lar U.S. destination among Brazil- ians, and in California, which is favored by Chinese tourists. The Chinese spent some $5 billion in the U.S. in 2010, up 39 percent from 2009, according to the De- partment of Commerce, and Bra- zilians spent just under $6 billion, up 30 percent year on year. In Sunrise, Fla., the 350-store Saw- grass Mills regularly gets a huge influx of Brazilian shoppers who sometimes spend up to four times as much as other shoppers, says Kelly Mikesell, vice president of marketing for The Mills, a Simon Property Group–owned chain of 15 outlet and value-oriented retail centers. Largely because of this inter- national sales base, Sawgrass Mills has created Shop N Drop, a program that enables these shoppers to get their pur- chases shipped back home or to the ho- tel or airport, says Mikesell. In 2010 some 401,000 Chinese visi- tors, roughly half the total number of Chinese nationals that visited the U.S. that year, came to California and spent a record $1 billion there. At Fashion Outlets of Las Vegas, Asian visitors have boosted the tour bus business some 300 percent from a year ago, according to Ann Ackerman, direc- tor of marketing for AWE Talisman, the 46 SCT / APRIL 2012 mall's owner. The center employs Man- darin-speaking customer-service reps and provides special coupon books to Asian groups. In Chicago, which the Daley ad- ministration is working hard to promote as the most Chinese-friendly city in the U.S., AWE is working with tour-and- convention group Choose Chicago and with bus companies to prepare for the Chinese who will be visiting the Fashion Outlets of Chicago upon its completion SUNRISE, FLA.'S SAWGRASS MILLS IS A TOURIST MAGNET. Paris is coming from Chinese tourists, and strict U.S. visa policies have helped push tourists elsewhere. At present 36 countries have visa- waiver agreements with the U.S. — those citizens can visit here for up to 90 days without a visa, and Taiwan has now been added. Citizens from Mexico and Canada need only passports, not visas, to enter the U.S. Other initiatives are greasing the wheels. At press time the Department of Homeland Securi- ty's Global Entry Program, created in 2007 to give expedited clearance to pre-approved, low-risk travel- ers from certain countries, was on track to become permanent, and citizens of Canada, Mexico, the Netherlands and the U.K., meanwhile, were already enjoying wait times shortened by up to 70 percent. Bilateral agreements with Germany, South Korea and Singa- pore are pending, according to the in the fall. "We are very aggressive in our tourism efforts," Ackerman said. Simon Property–owned Premium Outlets, which operates 10 shopping centers in California and four in Flor- ida, is pleased with the moves to ease visa restrictions. Chinese shoppers were Premium Outlets' fastest-growing in- ternational segment last year, with the number of Brazilian visitors escalating too, especially in Florida, says Michele Rothstein, Premium Outlets' senior vice president of marketing. "The Chi- nese and Brazilian international trav- elers have been important segments," she said. "Any effort to help ease [their] travel to the U.S. is enthusiastically sup- ported." Luxury retail can be expected to ben- efit from relaxing visa access. Chinese consumers doled out some 25 percent more in luxury spending last year than in the previous year, and Brazilians spent 10 percent to 15 percent more, ac- cording to consulting firm Bain & Co. About a third of the luxury business in U.S. Travel Association, which champi- oned Global Entry and is lobbying for the prompt inclusion of the additional countries. Global Entry participants typ- ically use kiosks to complete their cus- toms and immigration clearances rather than wait in long lines for inspections. In the ten years following the Sept. 11 attacks, the U.S. lost about a third of its international travel market and some 1 million jobs in the sector, said Roger Dow, CEO of the U.S. Travel Association, at the ONE Travel Confer- ence for Shopping, Dining & Cultural Tourism, in January. Dow, who calls that period the industry's "lost decade," also announced that the association has entered into a $200 million, public-pri- vate marketing partnership called Brand USA, which focuses on attracting inter- national visitors and shoppers. The U.S. Travel Association's top five tourism markets for the U.S. do not yet include China and Brazil: They are Canada, Ja- pan, the U.K., Mexico and Germany, in that order. SCT