Chinese tourists going to Canada are expected to outnumber tourists from other countries in 2014 and 2015, according to the latest research by the Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC).

The number of Chinese going to Canada this year will increase 18.2 percent, with an estimated year-on-year rise of 20.8 percent in terms of spending by those tourists, according to a CTC forecast.

During the first two months of 2014, Canada saw a 30.3 percent growth in tourists from China, making it the top-performing market in terms of gains, according to the latest report on tourism from the commission.

The CTC said it is optimistic that the double-digit increase in the number of Chinese tourists going to Canada will continue because of the competitive exchange rate, the quality of air transportation, strong tourism promotion campaigns launched by the commission and the approved destination scheme (ADS). That program started in June 2010 and gives Chinese tour groups and repeat travelers visas that are good for 10 years.

According to Statistics Canada and the International Travel Survey, since the ADS was granted, trips from China to Canada expanded 22.3 percent in 2011 and an additional 15.5 percent in 2012, with the number growing from 236,700 to 273,300. In 2012, Chinese travelers spent $485.6 million in Canada, an increase of 19.2 percent compared with $407.4 million in 2011.

This year, there has seen a 31 percent increase in the number of Chinese visitors to British Columbia compared with 2013, according to Josie Heisig, media representative with “Destination British Columbia’’. Chinese tourists, either in package tours or on independent travel, prefer the Canadian travel destinations of British Columbia, Ontario, Alberta and Quebec.

With more Chinese travelers going to North America, and Canada in particular, the CTC has worked with tourism promotion organizations in local regions to initiate tailored marketing campaigns to inform, entertain and attract potential travelers from China.

Now, 23 travel agencies in Ontario host mainly tourists from China and provide Chinese-speaking tour guides. The local tourist- marketing organization launched a new Chinese website early this year and invited Chinese actors to shoot promotional films.

Starting on June 5, a biweekly online travel program called “Travel to Canada” has been broadcast on the official site of the CTC (keepexploring.cn) as well as Iqiyi, PPTV and Youku, China’s three major video websites.

In general, Chinese tourists have shown increasing interest in wildlife and outdoor adventure on their trips to Canada and many tourists prefer independent travel outside of group tours, especially for road trips in the vast country.

According to figures from Hertz, the global car rental company, as many as 10,000 travelers to Canada chose to travel across the country in rental cars during last year’s National Day Golden Week.

Catering to such changing demands, the CTC has made road trips one of the main promotional themes in its programs, Derek Galpin, managing director of CTC’s China office, told the Beijing News.

The program has also become a hot topic on the social network website of Sina Weibo, generating as many as 140 million clicks and a total of about 171,000 microblogs for related discussion, many of which are by tourists sharing their travel experience and photos of well-known scenic spots in Canada.

An increased number of Chinese tourists are expected to choose Canada as their travel destination during the upcoming National Day Golden Week holiday, from Oct 1 to Oct 7, and in the autumn, the best time of the year to enjoy Canada’s scenery of maple leaves.

The number of Chinese international tourists will reach 100 million by the year 2020, pushing China to the world’s fourth-largest outbound tourism country, according to the World Tourism Organization.

xiaolixin@chinadaily.com.cn