PORT ANGELES — Potential Chinese tourists look at photos of the stunning vistas of the North Olympic Peninsula and see a place where they can breathe easy.
That’s what Diane Schostak, executive director of the North Olympic Peninsula Visitor Bureau, which is based in Port Angeles, said after traveling in September with a delegation of 70 people, led by Gov. Chris Gregoire, on an eight-day mission to meet those in the travel industry in mainland China.
“We had two receptions — one in Beijing and one in Shanghai,” said Schostak.
“The Olympic Peninsula was kind of the belle of the ball,” she said.
Air quality is a major reason that the Peninsula is so attractive, Schostak said.
Especially in Beijing, “the air quality . . . is not so good,” she said. “. . . it is next to the Mongolian desert and the dust from the desert, and their environmental laws aren’t real tight.
“You can maybe see six blocks.
“When I showed pictures of Hurricane Ridge and miles and miles of sea stacks on the beach, they were on the edges of their seats.”
The point of the tour was to encourage Chinese tourists to visit Washington state.
Last year, 30,000 Chinese visited Washington state, and that number is predicted to double by 2012, Schostak said.
China now holds the No. 12 slot for international, overseas visitors to the U.S. and is the fastest growing tourism source.
“I think the tour was an effective one because there are 3.4 billion people in China, and if you get even a very small percentage of those to respond, that can have a huge impact,” Schostak said.
Although the natural beauty of Olympic National Park was the subject of much attention at the conferences, inevitably Twilight also was an attraction.
Travel agencies even showed off large posters of the movie version in the offices.
“At first, I didn’t know the right word to ask about it,” Schostak said.
“But once I learned, it was like flies. The young girls just adored it.
“It worked quite well.”
Twilight — a four-novel series set in Forks, LaPush and Port Angeles — has drawn more than 65,000 visitors to Forks so far this year.
Last year, some 70,000 signed in at the Forks visitor center while they visited places mentioned in their favorite novels and movies, which tell the story of Forks teen Bella Swan and her vampire boyfriend, Edward Cullen.
Schostak said she learned in China that the process for getting a visa to travel to the United States is very involved.
“The wait to get a visa is about 90 days, and it requires an in-person interview,” she said.
“That is the biggest barrier right now.”
She met many who want to visit.
“They are a wonderful people,” she said.
“They are very patient, and many of them save about half of their wages because they don’t have a retirement system or health care [system].”
“So they end up having expendable income.”
The Olympic Peninsula Tourism Commission and Olympic Peninsula Visitor Bureau sponsored Schostak on the governor’s trade mission.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.