Travel agents hope for return of ‘glory times’ as China resumes group tours to Canada

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VANCOUVER — Travel agents are celebrating Beijing’s decision to resume group tourism to Canada after a five-year halt, hoping for the return of big-spending Chinese visitors who were a dominant presence for the industry before the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Glynnis Chan, president of Vancouver-based Happy Times Travel and Tour Ltd., has been leading group tours for Chinese visitors to the city since the mid-1980s.

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She said she expected a big boost for the local economy after Monday’s decision by China to resume group tours that Chan said “ground to a halt” in 2020 amid the pandemic.

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Chan said the tourists she hosted would typically spend six weeks travelling Canada, estimating they’d spend more than $1,300 a day, with Stanley Park in Vancouver, the Rocky Mountains and Parliament Hill in Ottawa on their sightseeing list.

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“(Monday’s) news was like a shot in the arm to the local tourism industry, and I am ready to show them the beauty of the country,” said Chan in an interview in Mandarin on Tuesday.

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Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said in a statement on Monday that the resumption of Chinese group tourism to Canada was “an important step in the recalibrated bilateral relationship.”

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The move came after Prime Minister Mark Carney met Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea on Friday, with Anand calling it a “turning point” in the relations between the two countries.

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Destination BC data shows Chinese travel to the province in the year to August is down 45 per cent compared to 2019, although numbers are already tracking upwards, by 24 per cent since last year.

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Nationally, Chinese visitor numbers are down 51 per cent since 2019, when there were more than 500,000 Chinese visitors to Canada, according to Destination BC.

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Chan said Chinese tourists often prefer to spend more time in Canada than other tourists in order to understand the country as they consider immigration.

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“For Chinese group tourists, my tour will focus on showing them Canadian natural wonders, and then we will do some city tours. It has been a fun experience to hang out with them,” said Chan, recalling her pre-pandemic tours.

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While Chinese tourists are able to travel to Canada and elsewhere as individuals, tour group travel must be mandated by the national government. China relaxed a group travel ban on most countries in 2023, but Canada was left off the list of more than 100 countries where it was allowed, amid heightened political tensions over allegations of Chinese foreign interference.

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Chan said it was exciting to see Carney and Xi shake hands and resume relationships between the two countries. She said this would make it easier for travel agents to promote their businesses.

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Chan said the biggest group of Chinese travellers she ever led in B.C. consisted of 112 people on a trade mission in 1998.

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Fellow travel agent Mabel Wu, who owns Next Vacation Ltd. in Richmond, B.C., said that in the “glory times” of Chinese tourism before the pandemic, groups would visit restaurants to order the most expensive seafood available.