Hopewell Rocks are seen in 2015 at Hopewell Cape, N.B. The number of Chinese visitors to the Rocks has doubled since 2011.FRANCK FIFE/AFP / Getty Images
The opening of several new offices in China where citizens can apply for visas to visit Canada could be a boon for travel operators in this country, if Chinese tourism surges as a result.
Among the deals signed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during his state visit to China was an agreement to allow Canada to open seven new visa application centres, in addition to the five already there. Until now, the Chinese government has permitted visa offices only in cities where Canada has an embassy or a consulate. The new offices are expected to open in 2017.
With more Chinese people heading out on travels from secondary cities, smoothing the visa application process could sharpen Canada's competitive edge as a travel destination. These cities are smaller than Beijing or Shanghai, but many are prosperous metropolitan areas with more than five million people. Having a local office means travellers don't have to go to a larger centre to get a visa, or to send valuable documents to the embassy in Beijing.
Annick Robichaud-Butland, group tour manager for the Hopewell Rocks, a tourist destination on the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick, said that when she was on a travel trade mission to China in 2013, she heard that one of the key roadblocks to more tourism to Canada was the low number of visa application offices. This new agreement "will certainly open more doors to people that are outside [the largest] cities," she said.
Hopewell Rocks has already seen a surge in Chinese visitors, with the numbers having doubled since 2011. As many as eight buses of Chinese visitors come to the site a day, Ms. Robichaud-Butland said. And tours are now arriving during the shoulder seasons in the spring and fall, as well as the busy summer months.
Rob Taylor, vice-president of the Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC), said that in the long term, the new offices will also help deal with a new technical requirement: After 2018, tourists coming to Canada will have to provide "biometric" data with their visa applications, which might include electronic fingerprints or retinal scans. That can only be done in person, so having more offices will help prevent roadblocks.
Canada has become a key destination for Chinese tourists, with close to 500,000 visiting in 2015. The numbers are up sharply in 2016 and China is now the third-largest source of foreign tourists in Canada, after the United States and Britain. Still, "we can handle a lot more," Mr. Taylor said.
One factor in the growth of Chinese tourism to Canada was the 2010 agreement that gave Canada "approved destination status." That allowed direct-to-consumer tourism advertising and permitted Chinese group visits.
Because there are so many people of Chinese descent living in Canada, it is already a big draw, Mr. Taylor said, and more and more Chinese tourists are coming here individually to visit friends and relatives, rather than going on organized tours. "We are very lucky to have a strong Chinese diaspora," he said.
While cities such as Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal – as well as key destinations such as Banff – can easily handle more visitors, smaller centres are also gearing up for more Chinese tourists. TIAC runs a "China readiness" program that helps tourism operators understand cultural issues so they can make Chinese travellers feel welcome.
Destination Canada, the Crown agency responsible for selling Canada as a tourist destination, will be boosting its promotional spending in China by about 40 per cent over the next two years, partly to take advantage of the new visa offices, said its president, David Goldstein.
The big cities are just the "tip of the iceberg" of potential tourists, Mr. Goldstein said, and the new offices will make Canada more competitive with other countries such as Britain, the United States and Australia, which already have many more visa centres because of their bigger networks of consular offices.
Another key factor in attracting Chinese travellers is the availability of direct air flights. In addition to long-standing direct services to Vancouver and Toronto from several Chinese cities, new direct flights to Montreal and Calgary were added over the past year.