China
Canada heads for top spot among Chinese tourists
By Zhao Yanrong (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-08-24 14:48
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Canadian mounted police officers attract tourists from a Chinese tour group upon their arrival at Vancouver International Airport on Aug 18. Huang Xiaonan / Xinhua |
BEIJING - Canada is likely to replace the United States as America's largest tourist destination for Chinese shortly, thanks to its newly won tourist destination status and quicker visa applications, travel agencies in China predict.
With the status, approved by the Chinese government on Aug 15, Chinese agencies can arrange tours to Canada, said Zhang Meng, deputy director of the outbound tour department of China International Travel Service (CITS).
"Canada is going to be the hottest international destination for our clients," he said, with many lining up for tours during October's Golden Week, the week-long National Day holiday.
Before the status was granted, Chinese mostly visited Canada under business trip arrangements, which made tours to the North American country difficult to ordinary tourists.
Since the status was granted, several hundred Chinese tourists have visited Canada.
As well, Chinese citizens can get Canadian visas quicker than US visas. "It only takes five working days to get a Canadian visa," Zhang said.
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"If you applied now for a US tour for the golden week, it would be impossible.
"Partly because of that, it's likely there will be more tours to Canada during that week than to the US."
The Canadian Embassy in Beijing has also opened an express service for 20 top Chinese travel agencies, including CITS.
Duan Yan, the embassy's media officer, said its visa section, with more than 100 employees, is one of Canada's largest visa offices in the world. "Additional visa processing is done by our visa section at the consulate-general in Shanghai," Duan said.
"We also operates four visa application centers in China to make it more convenient for travelers to submit applications."
CITS has sold out all 100 of its places for Canadian tours for the Golden Week and is seeking more seats from airlines. "We are confident to attract more travelers if we can get more seats," Zhang said.
Almost 500,000 Chinese tourists visited the US last year, and the US Department of Commerce predicted in July that visitor numbers from China would hit 575,000 this year.
In the first five months of this year, Canada hosted more than 133,000 Chinese travelers, up 25 percent year-on-year, the China National Tourism Administration said.
Stockwell Day, president of Canada's Treasury Board and Minister for the Asia-Pacific Gateway, said more than 100 million travelers from China to all countries are expected from now to 2020.
The Tourism Industry Association of Canada last week predicted that tourism revenue in Canada is likely to double, or even triple, within three years. Chinese tourists are likely to spend at least C$500 million ($477 million) in the country every year.
Tours to Canada cost between 25,000 yuan ($3,680) and 30,000 yuan, while US tours cost about 15,000 yuan, Zhang said.
But the higher prices are no deterrent "because it covers most fees and tickets during their trips. Compared with shopping tours in the US, travelers actually might spend less in Canada", he said.
Air Canada is planning more flights between the two nations from next month, Xinhua News Agency reported on Aug 17.
There are daily flights from Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong to Toronto and Vancouver.
Air Canada operates 28 flights a week from Beijing and Shanghai to Canadian cities. Direct fights from Guangzhou to Vancouver will start in two years.
More than 12 million outbound Chinese tourists created an income of 38.42 billion yuan last year - 7 percent more than the previous year. This was 22 percent of the total tourism economy of the country, the National Bureau of Statistics said.
China Daily