Sand like sugar. Skies as blue as cornflowers. Waves of gentle turquoise.

That idyllic portrait of the Pinellas beaches is one that D.T. Minich has painted all over Europe and South America. Last week the Pinellas County tourism chief introduced the beaches of Clearwater Beach, Fort De Soto, Caladesi and Honeymoon Islands to a brand-new market:

China.

"When they saw the blue skies and pure water and white sandy beaches, they were just like 'Wow,' " Minich said. "They were blown away. A couple of people asked me if this was real."

The photos were real just as real as the potential for Chinese visitors to bolster Pinellas tourism.

Minich, executive director of the Visit St. Petersburg/Clearwater Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, made his first trip to China last week for Pinellas County's tourism agency. He joined a Florida tourism mission to the world's most populous nation: 1.4 billion people.

Tourism destinations around the world are lining up to grab a share of what is projected to become the world's biggest travel market in 2013. It's also the world's fastest growing market. This year 90 million Chinese are projected to travel overseas, according to Visit Florida, the state's tourism agency. That's expected to surpass 200 million by 2025.

"The growth rate has been phenomenal and exponential," said Liping Cai, director of the Purdue University Tourism and Hospitality Research Center.

Right now the U.S. share of that market is meager, and Florida's is even tinier. Last year an estimated 1.2 million Chinese tourists visited the United States, and 231,000 made their way to Florida. But that's double the number who visited Florida in 2011. Those numbers could grow even faster thanks to proposed changes to make it easier to get U.S. tourism visas in China.

Florida tourism officials have been preparing for the growth of Chinese tourism for years. They made their first visit in 2006 and hired representation there in 2008.

Go here to see the original:

Pinellas' idyllic beaches could appeal to China's travel boom