LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AmericanTours International (ATI) Chair/CEO Noel Irwin Hentschel is back from weeks of briefings with U.S. and China government officials discussing ways to expand China tourism to all regions of the U.S. and promote the 2010 Shanghai Expo.

Hentschel met Yao Ming in Los Angeles and spoke about Chinese travelers visiting Houston in April 2010 for a “Rockets” game during the inaugural ATI-TTA “Gone With The Wind” Trust Tour. “Yao Ming is responsible for putting a ‘Houston Rockets’ game high on the list of Chinese visitors to America,” stated Hentschel. “Traveling on ATI motorcoaches the tour will visit 8 states, sampling Cajun food in New Orleans, dressing like Scarlett O’Hara in Natchez and listening to country music in Nashville.”

Trust Travel Alliance (TTA), an agreement between ATI, China Travel Service (CTS), China International Travel Service (CITS), China Youth Travel Service (CYTS), China Comfort Travel (CCT), CITIC and Shanghai Airlines are committed to safety, quality, service and value. TTA and the Trust Tours concept, brand and products were founded by ATI subsequent to the 2009 China tour operator bus tragedy in Arizona that killed 7 Chinese tourists due to disregard of U.S. regulations. The TTA Trust Tours series, operated exclusively by ATI, provides unique tours of America for ATI authorized TTA members with strict adherence to U.S. and P.R.C. laws and safety regulations.

Hentschel met in Beijing with Director General He Ning, Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), Director Liu, China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) and President Mo, China Travel Service (CTS) to discuss ways to reciprocally attract more tourism and enforce U.S. and P.R.C. laws to clean up the underground tourism industry, which handles most Chinese tourists in the U.S. Hentschel was commended for establishing ATI-TTA Trust Tours to help protect Chinese travelers.

In Shanghai Hentschel met with U.S. Department of Commerce Deputy Assistant Secretary Joel D. Secundy prior to the JCCT government meetings who expressed concern about negligent tour operators and advised that the U.S. and China governments and tourism industry must work together to solve this serious issue.

ATI, co-founded in 1977, the largest American-owned privately held inbound/outbound tourism organization, annually serves one million visitors and generates $3 billion into the U.S. economy. Headquartered in Los Angeles, ATI has offices in New York, San Francisco, Washington D.C., Orlando, Honolulu and Beijing.