Canada Capitalize Fully on Chinese Approval Destination Status

 It is hard to gauge just how much of an economic hegemony China will become.

But with a growing middle-class some estimate to be over three times the population of Canada, even a small portion of the country’s expanding vacation industry could mean big business for whichever region of the world can consistently attract Chinese tourist to visit.

That is why this month’s announcement that Canada has been granted approved destination status by the Chinese government has been hailed by all levels of leadership.

Stockwell Day, local MP and federal minister of international trade, said the approval is “a major step forward, one which will see Chinese tourism numbers to Canada move up big time.”

While B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell, who himself has led six missions to China since 2001, proclaimed, “Achieving Approved Destination Status (ADS) with China is a major economic and cultural step in terms of building our important relationship with China.

“British Columbia is in a position to capitalize fully on this new agreement between our nations.”

Currently, most visitors to Canada from China are business travellers, students, or people visiting friends and relatives, according to the province, with about half of them (79,845 as of September this year) coming to B.C.

With ADS, B.C.’s tourism industry will now be allowed to promote and market the province as a tourism destination, and at the same time, Chinese tour operators and travel agents will be permitted to organize tours and advertise Canadian destinations.

The province anticipates that ADS could increase Chinese tourism to B.C. by 25 per cent annually over the next few years, pointing out that within three years of receiving ADS, the number of Chinese visitors to Australia almost doubled.

Those are numbers that certainly catch the attention of Penticton and Wine Country Tourism chair Judy Poole.

“(ADS) is excellent news for tourism in Canada, British Columbia and all destinations within,” said Poole, noting that China is expected to be the world’s largest outbound market by 2020, with numbers of outbound tourists projected at around 100 million a year. 

Poole said that right now the vast majority of visitors to Penticton are from B.C. and Alberta.

Indeed, with only 11 per cent of overall visits to the Penticton Wine Country Visitor Centre last year coming from international markets, of which only one per cent of that number coming from the Asia/Australia region, there is certainly room for growth.

“We would only enter this market through a partnership opportunity,” explained Poole. “Currently both the Canadian Tourism Commission and Tourism British Columbia are poised to begin marketing activities in China. We expect British Columbia to gain a significant share of the Canadian visits, and based on sheer numbers, we expect to see an increase here as well.

“We look forward to working with our tourism industry partners to capitalize on any opportunity for Penticton and Wine Country.”