Canadian Immigrants

As a prosperous nation, Canada boasts a large domestic and foreign tourist industry. The second largest country in the world, Canada’s incredible geographical variety is a significant tourist attracter. Canada’s three largest cities, Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal  are major metropolitan areas, well-known for their culture and diversity. Canadian historic sites across the nation are also important to the tourist industry.

China is the fastest growing outbound tourism market in the world, and by 2020 it is expected that 100 million Chinese will make outbound leisure trips annually, according to the World Tourism Organization.  In December 2009, the Government of China has granted Canada Approved Destination Status, a designation that makes it easier for Chinese nationals to visit Canada. Approved Destination Status allows Chinese travel agents to advertise and organize group tours to countries with the designation.  This means that obtaining permission to arrange group travel to that country becomes easier.  As a result, this should encourage more people from China to travel to Canada, which will have a positive impact on the Canadian economy.

In 2008, visits to Canada by Chinese citizens were up 5.3 per cent from the year before, for a total of 159,000.  Chinese travellers had the highest average length of stay (28 nights) in Canada and spent more than visitors from any other country ($1,648.51).  According to a Conference Board of Canada survey, approved destination status is expected to boost the yearly rate of travel to Canada from China by up to 50 per cent by 2015.

There are currently over 380,000 Chinese immigrants in Canada and an additional 40,000 Chinese international students.    Every year, these immigrants travel back and forth from Canada and China.  In addition, their friends and relatives also come to visit.   All these present a great opportunity for travel agencies focusing the Chinese immigrants as a target market.