Interview: Canada expects economic windfall with newly granted Chinese ADS

Canadian tourism and businesses servicing the sector are anticipating an economic windfall from Chinese visitors, as China recently granted Canada its Approved Destination Status.

Canada, the last major Western country to receive the status that had allowed Chinese travel agents to advertise in and organize group tours to about 130 nations and territories, welcomed the agreement reached earlier this month during Prime Minister Stephen Harper's visit to China.

The signing of the agreement was somewhat unexpected but the potential benefits were significant, Derek Galpin, managing director of the Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC) China office, told Xinhua.

"We're probably looking at a 50-percent growth in leisure group traffic to Canada in the next four to five years and probably over the next three years around a 450 million Canadian dollars (426.7 million U.S. dollars) injection into the Canadian economy," Galpin said.

"There's an estimate of around 1,800 to 2,000 jobs being created over the same period," he said, "The impact on the tourism industry, which of course has been through some hard times what with the recession and H1N1 (flu virus), is really a big boost for the Canadian tourism industry and Canada."

The ADS will allow Canada to advertise as a tourist destination in China, and the CTC is now deliberating on the amount of money to spend on promoting Canada in China, Galpin said.

He said there would be an "aggressive" advertising campaign coming out in 2010, as well as an awareness road show around China.

He expected Vancouver and Whistler, hosts of the upcoming Winter Olympics, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec to be the biggest recipients of the first wave of Chinese tour groups.

"Potentially this is huge. There was 160,000 Chinese who came to Canada last year anyway. This is the last true tourism destination to get ADS," Galpin said. "All the research we have done over the last five years shows there is very, very strong demand for Canada. It will also be good exposure for the Winter Olympics."

Canada faces an uphill battle in creating awareness of the country to potential Chinese tourists because most of its competitors received the ADS designation years before. The United States, the top ADS destination for Chinese, received the designation in 2007, while Australia, the first western country to receive the status in 1999, welcomed 356,400 mainland visitors last year.

However, with the World Tourism Organization forecasting China to have 100 million international travelers by 2020, Canadian officials believe the country can quickly catch up and is well placed to receive many of those visitors.

According to the CTC, which ranks Canada as the second-most appealing destination for China travelers, about 159,000 Chinese visited Canada in 2008, up 5.3 percent year-on-year.

Cindy Gobin, Tourism BC market development manager for Asia, who has traveled to China several times a year over the past decade, told Xinhua that with the ADS in place her office would be able to fully engage itself in marketing the province in China.

Her office had been preparing for the approval by revamping its website in Chinese, pursuing about 700 exposures in key travel media worth about 7 million Canadian dollars (6.64 million dollars), doing television shoots and training about 1,000 Chinese travel agents, Gobin said.

"In the major cities (Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou), the awareness of Vancouver is higher than (South) Korea when we started working in that market," she said.

"But it is because of our immigrant population. It does put us in good shape. Everybody in China knows somebody in Vancouver, so they do have an existing awareness," she said.

Howard Blank, vice president of media, entertainment and responsible gaming for the Great Canadian Gaming Corporation, called the ADS agreement "significant" and a "huge opportunity" for all sectors of business in Canada.

"China is truly a burgeoning economic factor and this agreement (ADS) will open up the door to long-lasting opportunities for every sector of business in Canada," he said.

Source: Xinhua