Some 97 million Chinese traveled overseas last year, and that number is expected to rise by 14% in 2014, said Robert A. Rauch, president of R.A. Rauch & Associates, which sponsored a panel last week titled “Onward & upward: A lodging industry forecast for 2014” at the Hilton Garden Inn San Diego/Del Mar. The way Rauch sees it, roughly 10% of those travelers will come to the United States, spending an average of $8,000 per person for stays of a week or more. For a city such as San Diego, that could mean enough bookings to fill 700,000 hotel rooms each year—or 12 times the impact of Qualcomm, which is the largest driver of accommodations in San Diego.   “We have one heck of an opportunity there,” Rauch said.