Canada's tourism industry is getting ready to welcome a large influx of Chinese tourists as Ottawa attempts to finalize "approved destination status" (ADS) with the Chinese government.

The World Tourism Organization estimates 100 million Chinese tourists annually will venture abroad by 2020, while the International Air Transport Association forecasts China will be the fastest-growing outbound tourism market, with an average annual growth rate of 12.5 per cent between 2004 and 2008.

As a result, tourism groups across Canada are hosting seminars to show operators how to meet the needs of future Chinese travellers. Government and industry organizations are also conducting tours for Chinese travel agents and media to help them spread the word about Canada back home.

"When you go into a market that size, you really have to do your homework, and that's what we're helping everybody do," says Guy Lepage, media relations officer for Ontario's Tourism Ministry.

Wayne Chose, Business Edge
Henry Yau, Asia-Pacific manager for TPI Travel in Richmond, B.C., expects a surge in Chinese tourism with ADS status.

He says the number of Chinese travellers to Canada is expected to increase 15 to 20 per cent above the 100,000 who currently visit. Ontario, which already receives 40 per cent of Chinese visitors to Canada, expects to grow its Chinese tourist market by eight to 10 per cent. B.C. and Alberta are not yet making any predictions on increases.

More than 70 other countries have been granted ADS by China, including Australia, Jamaica, South Africa, Britain and some member states of the European Union - but not the United States.

"There's a big anticipation here about what this is going to mean (for Canada's tourism industry)," says Cindy Gobin, Tourism BC's market development manager for Asia.

Many travel industry insiders say actual ADS is not expected until Canada and China sign a formal agreement this fall, early next year, or possibly later. If all goes according to plan, ADS will allow for large leisure-travel groups (which were not permitted previously), more individual travellers and more joint ventures between Canadian and Chinese tourism operators - providing a significant boost beyond the 100,000 people who now visit from China.

"We're trying to alert the industry to the opportunity - which is huge, but also very demanding," says Don Boynton, Travel Alberta's communications director.

Provincial travel organizations are working closely with the Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC), a federal Crown corporation that partners with public- and private-sector travel organizations, as part of a national strategy to take advantage of the anticipated growth - and to make sure Chinese travellers feel welcome.

"It's basically cultural awareness. That's where we're coming from, talking about what the reaction of tourism operators should be when a Chinese tourist comes to B.C.," says Mary Mahon Jones, CEO of the Council of Tourism Associations of British Columbia (COTA). "What should be the protocol?" COTA is hosting a series of workshops for travel operators, offering Mandarin-language training and explaining some Chinese customs.

"Being able to come to Canada as a Chinese traveller, I think, is a big deal (in China), because it's one of a kind," says Tong Chow of North Vancouver, who is conducting the COTA workshop series.

Chow, a Beijing native who has lived in Canada for the past 20 years and is also tutoring Chinese travel company operators in Western ways, says ADS will likely prompt B.C.-based travel agents and tour-company operators of Chinese descent to focus more on the Chinese market.

She adds Chinese businesspeople, students and people with relatives in Canada can easily obtain government permission to travel here, but tourist visas, which involve a "very awful" application process, are not usually granted.

Chow, who recently returned from a business and pleasure trip to Beijing, says Chinese travel agents and other operators know about Canada's impending ADS but most travellers do not, because they usually get such information by word of mouth.

"Once that information gets out, I think it will be like a volcano erupting," says Chow, who will lead another COTA workshop for travel operators Sept. 29 in Vancouver.

Travel industry personnel will learn how to greet Chinese visitors - hugging is taboo. They'll also learn that when handing a Chinese visitor a gift, you would use two hands instead of one as a sign of respect.

But COTA's Mahon Jones suggests B.C.'s tourism industry should not start counting the windfall.

"Our understanding is that the Chinese traveller is not yet aware of B.C. as a destination, so that's a bit of a challenge for us, in terms of marketing," says Mahon Jones.

During a visit to China earlier this year, Gobin of Tourism BC was shocked to discover only three travel agents in a room full of 70 had heard about the Rocky Mountains.

"They don't know what's in the East and what's in the West, so we want to let them know what's across the country," says Gobin.

In mid-September, Tourism BC and Travel Alberta will take 18 Chinese travel agency operators on a tour of B.C. and Alberta, making stops in Banff, Lake Louise, Calgary, Edmonton, Kelowna and Victoria. "The trip that we're showing is one that we're suggesting they would want to take their tour groups on," says Gobin.

Another group of Chinese travel agents will also take a tour through Ontario and Quebec around the same time, says Gobin. Most Chinese tourists are expected to visit B.C., Alberta, Ontario and Quebec.

Ontario's Tourism Ministry's Lepage says the Ontario Tourism Marketing Partnership, the provincial agency responsible for promoting tourism, hosted one seminar that drew more than 100 operators from sectors ranging from travel agencies to hotels to shopping malls. More seminars are planned.

"Here in Ontario, we're focusing on the areas of China that have the highest potential," says Lepage.

The province sent a tourism delegation to China in the spring and plans to send another one next year, while Tourism Minister Jim Bradley also appeared via satellite on China's largest TV network during a show about Ontario's Thousand Lakes region between Toronto and Ottawa.

Ontario will also participate in the China International Travel Mart tradeshow in Beijing this November.

"The main objective of the trips is to build relationships and position (Ontario) as a must-see destination," says Lepage.

Back in B.C., local hotel operators are getting such tips as not to put Chinese guests on the fourth floor of a hotel, because the number four is akin to misfortune, while putting them on the eighth floor is a wise move because the number eight is considered a source of good luck.

Because of its geographical proximity to China and strong cultural ties to the country, says Gobin, B.C. will be Canada's gateway for Chinese tourists. How the visitors feel will be more important than what they see, she suggests, adding comfort is very important.

"We want to make sure that we're delivering on the customers' expectations right now," says Gobin, adding the industry wants to ensure the growth in Chinese tourism is manageable and sustainable.

Gobin, who has been in the tourism industry for 20 years and has specialized in Asian travel for the past 12, predicts China will overtake the United Kingdom as B.C.'s top source of overseas visitors in the near future.

She expects Chinese tourists to embark on individual trips - rather than tours - much sooner than Japanese and Korean travellers did after their governments loosened overseas travel restrictions in 1977 and 1989, respectively.

Tourism BC plans to open an office in China once Canada receives ADS. Alberta has already hired Maria Yang, who is based in Taiwan and worked for the CTC when it had an office there, as a representative for Shanghai and Taiwan.

At least one Canadian company, Vancouver-based Uniglobe Travel International, has already set up shop in China and more are expected to follow the travel agency's lead.

Uniglobe has awarded the master franchise rights for the Shanghai and Hong Kong regions to Hong Kong-based Sincere Co. Ltd., which will operate a wholly owned subsidiary, Uniglobe Travel One (China) Ltd.

The company will connect with various tourist bureaus and the CTC to promote travel to Canada, says Brian Dahl, Uniglobe's communications director.

Dahl adds his firm expanded into China because it recognized the country's potential and China is ripe with small to medium-sized enterprises - the company's target market.

"While our core competence is business travel to our target market, we want our member agencies to satisfy all the travel needs of their corporate customers, be it business travel or leisure travel," says Dahl.

Travel Alberta's Boynton says Alberta expects to greatly increase the number of Chinese tourists who visit the province from the current 15,000, boosting China to a primary market from its current secondary status.

"The primary market is where we spend much of our attention and focus," says Boynton.

An increase in direct airline flights between China and Alberta will be critical to the growth, he adds. (Canada and China are negotiating a boost in flights between the two countries.)

Like B.C. and Ontario, Travel Alberta is spearheading workshops for operators.

Boynton says his group wants to meet the Chinese government's requirement that services be provided to visitors in their language, but other stipulations won't be known until the ADS agreement is signed.

"The other issue will be ensuring the awareness of Alberta (geographic features) and all the things that we have to offer, because Alberta is relatively unknown in China," says Boynton.

He says the Rockies do not yet resonate with Chinese travellers, but he expects that will change after ADS is granted, based on the way they have appealed to visitors from Japan and other parts of Asia.

Travel Alberta also plans to leverage the relationships that the Drumheller-based Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology has developed with curators in China.

(Monte Stewart can be reached at monte@businessedge.ca)