Tourism is Hawai'i's No. 1 industry and also our top "export industry," if you think that tourism is something we have that is bought with outside dollars.

But there's another way in which tourism acts as one of our better export industries: We sell our expertise in tourism around the world.

That has been true for some time in the field of resort development and management. Hawai'i has long been looked at as the place to get advice in building and managing tropical resorts.

But we truly have world-class expertise in the entire spectrum of what is called the hospitality industry. The latest example is the growing interest in our skills by leaders of China's emerging tourism industry.

A delegation from China was here recently to talk with community college officials about setting up a program that would boost China's ability to compete internationally in the hospitality industry. Hawai'i would train vocational and technical educators from China who would, in turn, take their new skills back and pass them on to students interested in the tourism industry.

We should grab this opportunity and run with it. Not only does it expand our tourism skills "export" industry, it helps keep Hawai'i on the map as the premier place in the world to go for advice and expertise in this most important economic activity.

Within the next decade or so, China will be the world's top tourist destination. It will also be one of the largest "exporters" of tourists and travelers to the rest of the world.

It only makes sense that Hawai'i, as a leader in this field, grab its fair share of this emerging opportunity.