SHANGHAI, China — The ads hanging on Spring International's storefront window here, across the street from People's Square, speak to Chinese consumers' increasing wealth and penchant for seeing the world.

There is the Mummy's Return package: seven days in Egypt by plane and boat to Cairo, Alexandria and Luxor for $1,250. The Romantic Getaway promises eight cities in France and Italy over 10 days for $1,575. And there are Diamond trips to South Africa and Golden excursions to Russia.

Notably missing are promotions for travel to the United States, even though tour operators in China say American cities such as Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Francisco and New York would be tops on the wish lists of many Chinese tourists.

Promoting tours to the U.S. is banned in China because the country isn't among Beijing's approved travel destinations, which is largely due to Washington's restrictive entry process — a complaint hardly confined to the Chinese.

A survey released this week by an American business lobbying group found that foreigners overwhelmingly viewed the U.S. as the worst when it came to obtaining a visa and entering the country.

"America is not an open country," said Chen Bo, an overseas travel specialist for Spring International, one of China's largest privately run tour services.

Referring to finding a tour group package to the U.S., he said, "You cannot get it anywhere."

But as pressure grows on Washington to ease up on visa rules tightened after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, American and Chinese tour companies see signs of hope that many more of the millions of wanderlust-driven Chinese will head for the United States.

Their hopes are pinned partly on the increasing dialogue between U.S. and Chinese officials on trade and tourism.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez, traveling with a business delegation, met in November with Premier Wen Jiabao and Vice Premier Wu Yi. Yi spoke vigorously about the need for Washington to increase visas for Chinese travelers.

"She said bringing more Chinese tourists to the U.S. could help the trade deficit," said Noel Irwin Hentschel, chief executive of AmericanTours International, a Los Angeles-based packager of U.S. tours, recounting the meeting at Zhongnanhai, China's White House.

It will take a lot more than tourists to make a dent in America's trade shortfall with China, which by U.S. measure surpassed $200 billion last year and is on pace to break that record this year. Still, some 300,000 Chinese tourists visited the U.S. last year and spent about $1.5 billion, Gutierrez said.

More than twice that number of Chinese made trips to France, which, like other countries in the European Union, is an approved destination country. Overall, about 32 million Chinese ventured overseas last year, and an estimated 100 million a year are projected to do so by 2020.

Despite their tendency to skimp on lodging and eating — many prefer to have Chinese food for all their meals — studies show Chinese spending close to $1,000 per overseas visitor, more than Japanese tourists.

Hentschel figures she will be lucky to sign up 1,000 Chinese tourists this year, out of more than 800,000 travelers she expects to bring from abroad. But she recently hired five Mandarin-speaking staff members in Los Angeles and is opening an office and renting an apartment in Beijing, both at the upscale Oriental Plaza next to Tiananmen Square, so she can make frequent visits to build relations with tour operators.

Her goal: to book 175,000 tourists from China over the next four years.

That is contingent on the U.S. being granted approved destination status by Beijing, which will almost certainly depend on Washington first taking steps to facilitate travel to the U.S. from China.

Gutierrez, in an interview in Shanghai, declined to say when he thought approval might be won, although some in the tourism industry believe that it may be three years away. Gutierrez said that the volume of Chinese tourists to the U.S. was up 12 percent this year through the end of August.