BEIJING — Chinese tour groups left for Hawai'i and other places in the U.S. yesterday under a new agreement that the American travel industry hopes will bring in billions of dollars.

An initial group of more than 200 tourists was flying in from the cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou for a 12-day visit that will take them to destinations such as Hawai'i, New York, Washington and Los Angeles. The trips cost about $4,000 each.

Chinese with visas have long been permitted to travel to the U.S. but the agreement signed last December considerably eased the way by conferring China's "approved destination status" on this country.

That allows Chinese travel agencies to market package tours to American destinations and it permits U.S. destinations to advertise directly to the Chinese public.

Hawai'i state tourism liaison Marsha Wienert said she was "thrilled" by the visa changes and the news that two of the initial groups will stop in the islands.

It is a much-anticipated move, with the state seeing great potential for China as a growing source of visitors. "We are bullish in regard to the potential from that market," Wienert said. "And they spend money, too."

She said the shift in policy will allow a gradual buildup, starting with travelers from nine provinces. "It allows the U.S. and China to be able to have it be kind of a pilot project."

A 22-year-old college student who gave her name as Miss Yang said she was visiting the United States for the first time and heading to Washington, New York, Philadelphia and Hawai'i.

"I'm very happy and excited," she said before rushing off to check in for her flight at Beijing's Capital Airport.

Yang said participants had been told they would not be allowed to leave the group at any time during the trip, perhaps reflecting lingering concerns over illegal immigration. U.S. visas are getting easier for Chinese citizens to obtain, with only about 20 percent having their requests rejected. Still, many find the process daunting.

Chinese travelers, flush with cash from their country's booming economy, are sought after by the tourism industry, both for their huge numbers and their free-spending ways: Chinese travelers on average spend upward of $6,000 per visit to the U.S. — more than residents of any other nation — according to U.S. Commerce Department calculations.

The U.S. tends to rank at the top of their desired foreign destinations, alongside France and Australia.

Even without the new agreement, the Commerce Department had predicted the number of Chinese visitors would rise to 579,000 by 2011. Travel industry observers say it could rise far beyond that number.

In Hawai'i, tourism officials are looking to China and South Korea to help offset continuing declines in the number of visitors from Japan, the state's largest source of foreign tourists.

Chinese tourists accounted for 56,000 of the 7.4 million visitors to Hawai'i in 2007. More than 1.3 million Japanese visited Hawai'i the same year.

The first direct air service between Hawai'i and China is expected to begin at the end of July.

Mega Global Airway, a charter airline based in Beijing, eventually plans six weekly flights between Honolulu and the Chinese cities of Tianjin and Hangzhou.

But experts say Hawai'i still faces significant competition from destinations such as Singapore and Guam that are also vying for Chinese tourists.

The soaring cost of fuel could also hamper Hawai'i tourism growth from the Chinese market.

Fuel prices have prompted two U.S. carriers to request one-year postponements in launching new services to China. The change affects planned United Airlines service between San Francisco and Guangzhou and US Airways flights between Philadelphia and Beijing.