most desired visitors bigspending tourists from brazil and china despite visa hurdles the usa has become a popular destination for their citizens the 12 million brazilians who visited in 2010 represented a third more than the year before according to commerce department figures the pace is growing by more than a fourth again this year the 801738 chinese who came in 2010 represented a 53 increase from 2009 theyre on pace to increase another 37 this year chinese visitors spend an average of 6243 during each us trip and brazilians 4940 according to the us travel association since the sept 11 attacks visa applicants who are outside visawaiver nations have to be interviewed by us consular staff but only five cities in china and four in brazil have consular offices that leaves 20 cities in china with populations of at least 2 million without offices the average wait in so paolo is 75 days the travel association says since the sept 11 attacks visa applicants who are outside visawaiver nations have to be interviewed by us consular staff but only five cities in china and four in brazil have consular offices that leaves 20 cities in china with populations of at least 2 million without offices the average wait in so paolo is 75 days the travel association says the presidents actions won immediate approval by many in the nations travel industry among them is nelson martin who worked for disney for 16 years before leaving in august to start highstar travel group which targets tourists from latin american countries martin said that brazilians especially are interested in visiting the us but that the distances and wait times for interviews at one of four consular offices are discouraging them in contrast to easier travel to europe or the caribbean we describe it as going on vacation before going on vacation martin said if you go to these offices the lines go out the door and around the corner the demand is incredible martin said conditions have improved in recent years in the consular offices in sao paolo rio brazilia and recife but he said boosting staff and eliminating interviews for some applicants as obama ordered will streamline the process its fantastic martin said its a huge step but a first step brazil would like ultimately to be included in the visawaiver program to make travel more on par with europe martin said