Chinese Tourists with Pockets Full of Dollars

Are the Chinese starting to spend the US dollars they have absorbed over recent years?

Chinese tourists have become the highest-spending overseas visitors, reports LaTi.

Chinese tourists spend an average of $2,932 per visit to California compared with $1,883 for other overseas visitors, according to the latest statistics by the U.S. Office of Travel and Tourism Industries.

"What we know about Chinese visitors is they don't like to lay on the beaches," said Ernest Wooden Jr., president of the Los Angeles Tourism and Convention Board. "What they do like is shopping."

The outpouring of Chinese money helped set a record for spending by foreign visitors to the U.S. — $168.1 billion in 2012, says LaTi.

This may be fun for US merchants that cater to Chinese tourists, but for the rest of us it will mean more price inflation as the dollars Bernanke stuffed overseas come back to the US and are used to out bid us for goods and services.