Chinese Tour Groups Are Returning, Except To One Place

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Tourism is a huge moneymaker for lots of places. How huge? Well, according to USTravel.org, tourism in 2019 alone accounted for:

• $1.1 trillion in total domestic and international inbound traveler spending in the U.S.
• 15.8 million jobs in the U.S.’s travel and “travel adjacent” industries
• $277.4 billion in wages in the travel industry
• $179.7 billion in tax revenue generated by travel spending for federal, state and local governments

Some other “travel” statistics from 2019:

• Travel was 2.9% of our country’s gross domestic product (GDP)
• 1 out of 10 jobs depended on travel and tourism
• Americans took 2.3 billion trips for business and leisure
• There were 79 million international arrivals
• Travel was among the top 10 industries in 49 states and D.C. in terms of employment.
• Direct spending by resident and international travelers in the U.S. averaged $3.1 billion a day, $128.6 million an hour, $2.1 million a minute and $35,700 a second.

Overseas arrivals represented about half of all international arrivals, yet accounted for 84% of total international travel spending. These were how many international visitors we had in 2019:

• Canada: 20.7 million
• Mexico: 18.1 million
• U.K.: 4.8 million
• Japan: 3.8 million
• China: 2.8 million
• South Korea: 2.3 million
• Brazil: 2.1 million
• Germany: 2.1 million
• France: 1.8 million
• India: 1.5 million

And these were just statistics from the U.S. Other countries have their own lists of how valuable tourism is, both from within their home country and from international tourists.

China has allowed outbound tourism since the late 1970s. However due to how business is run in China, as well as requiring bilateral tourism agreements between China and overseas destinations, it wasn’t until the early 1980s that implementation of this open-door policy really got on its feet in terms of tour groups.

This was first to nearby countries such as Hong Kong and Macau. By the 1990s, Chinese tour groups expanded to “further out” Asian countries such as Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. By the early 2000s the Chinese were allowed to start visiting the rest of the world as well, and that’s when we started seeing more Chinese tour groups around the world.

The Covid pandemic decimated the travel industry. Although some countries reopened as early as 2020 or early 2021, some countries didn’t reopen to tourism for years. Japan, for example, didn’t allow visa- and agent-free tourism until October, 2022. And China? They didn’t reopen to tourists until 2023 and have juuuuuuust started to allow tour groups to leave the country again.

Except to one place.

Canada.

The CBC is reporting that effective August 10th, the Chinese foreign ministry added 78 countries (including the US, the UK, Germany and Australia) to a list of approved destinations for group tours and package travel that travel agents from the mainland work. That brings the total number of countries Chinese tour groups can visit to 138.

But Canada isn’t included.

The public affairs office at China’s embassy based in Ottawa told the CBC that “lately, the Canadian side has repeatedly hyped up the so-called ‘Chinese interference’ and rampant and discriminatory anti-Asian acts and words are rising significantly in Canada.

“The Chinese government attaches great importance to protecting the safety and legitimate rights of overseas Chinese citizens and wishes they can travel in a safe and friendly environment,” the embassy continued.

So it’s widely believed that China is “snubbing” Canada.

For people visiting Canada, they might think this is terrific. Chinese tourist groups tend to be large and their social norms aren’t the same as those from Western countries. A lack of tourist groups from China could mean a continuation of relatively smaller, more amicable crowds at Canada’s more popular tourist cities and attractions. (Note: this piece isn’t meant to comment on the social norms of the Chinese; if you comment and focus on “How rude Chinese tour groups are” or a similar topic, heads up that, as per our rules on approving replies, your comment won’t be approved).

However remember that tourists spend a lot of money. CBC News reported that in 2019, China was Canada’s largest source of tourist arrivals from the Asia-Pacific region and Canada’s second-largest long-haul market. China also used to be Canada’s largest market in terms of how much its tourists spent – reportedly over $1 billion per year.

So in terms of tourism money, a lack of Chinese tour groups will be a big continued financial loss to Canada’s tourism arm.

Politics, of course, is playing a huge role in this “snubbing.” However the office of Canada’s new tourism minister, Soraya Martinez Ferrada said that Canada continues to request the reinstatement of approved destination status for Chinese tourist groups.

Time will tell.

Feature photo (cropped): Filipe Fortes / flickr / CC BY SA-2.0

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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary