Chinese tourists choose Canada once again

Posters of famous sites from around the world adorn the walls of travel agency Utour Group’s headquarters in Beijing. There’s the Eiffel Tower, a cruise ship in the Mediterranean Sea, and an entire commercial dedicated to Canada featuring Lake Louise and the Vancouver skyline.

Flanked by these advertisements, Li Wei discussed her travel options with a Utour agent. Although the Rockies weren’t on her immediate list of places to visit, she said she was giving it more serious thought as Beijing began allowing group travel to Canada again this winter.

In fact, Li says she has a nephew studying in Toronto and at one point, many years ago, she was considering trying to emigrate.

“I would definitely go there to experience the life, environment and atmosphere of Canada,” she told CBC News.

For her, the attraction lies in the “beautiful landscape” and the fact that it is a “multi-ethnic country”.

Following the diplomatic freeze and COVID-19 measures that saw China impose blanket travel restrictions on Canada, Chinese tourists are once again considering Canadian options when planning their next vacation. This turning point is a huge relief for the tourism industry, as these visitors make up a vital part of its revenue, while Canadians are also putting China higher on their bucket list.

When China first group travel banned in Canada and other countries in 2020relations between Beijing and Ottawa were already at an all-time low, with the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of tech giant Huawei, in Vancouver on a US extradition warrant in 2018. The same month, China arrested Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor.

Travel statistics seem to reflect these realities.

Data provided by Statistics Canada shows that non-resident visitors entering Canada have increased steadily in recent years, although they have not reached pre-pandemic levels.

The latest available statistics for this year show that the number of Chinese visitors in March stood at 17,940, almost double that of 2023, when 10,632 people came.

Recalibrate the relationship

When the country began to relax the rules in 2023, it started approving group visits again in stagesgiving countries like Russia, Argentina and the United States “approved destination status.”

Canada was notably gone out.

It is, until the end of 2025marking a warming of the bilateral relationship while Prime Minister Mark Carney has worked to diversify the Canadian economy and shore up friends in the wake of tough global tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump.

At the time, Foreign Minister Anita Anand said there had been “work over the last few months… to recalibrate relations” through visits to China, including Carney’s invitation to meet President Xi Jinping in Beijing in January.

Thanks to this surge, the Utour Group is now seeing better business, although volume has not returned to pre-pandemic levels.

“So far, group tours [for the spring] are practically full,” said manager Li Mengran.

More flights, less administrative formalities

In the months following Carney’s visit, officials announced a number of tourism and travel-related commitments, in addition to trade-related objectives.

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THE The Chinese government has given up the lengthy visa application process for Canadian and British passport holders for a stay of up to 30 days in February.

In April, Transport Canada announced a “gradual increase” in the number of direct flights authorized between Canada and China, up to 20 flights per week. The number of flights has been significantly reduced as Canadian carriers banned from flying over Russian airspaceeven if the Chinese carriers were not.

As part of strengthening soft power ties, Culture Minister Marc Miller met this week with Chinese Minister of Culture and Tourism Sun Yeli in Beijing.

Diplomatic efforts appear to have borne fruit for Canadian businesses.

Vancouver-based travel agency Laurus Travel Inc. said in an email to CBC News that the number of Canadian bookings for its China tours “more than quadrupled” between the end of February and the end of May, compared to the same period last year.

“We achieved this without any advertising. We hope the trend will accelerate in the coming months,” wrote owner Julius Yan.

“There is simply no better evidence to demonstrate that the visa waiver policy extended to Canadians following Carney’s trip to Beijing plays a key role in this.”

Canada’s tourism industry

The promise of more Chinese tourists to Canada is a lifeline to the industry that thrives on their dollars. Before the pandemic hit, they were spending almost $2 billion a year here.

The drive to attract more visitors can be felt at the industry’s major annual show, Rendez-vous Canada, which saw the number of travel representatives from China more than double compared to the previous year.

“[Chinese tourists] I love participating in local culture and cuisine, I love shopping,” said Marsha Walden, CEO of Crown corporation Destination Canada.

“When they come to Canada, they spend their money in many different ways, which makes them very valuable to our industry.”

Walden says the organization projects revenue from these visitors will increase nearly 23 per cent this year, compared to an estimated $1.15 billion in 2025, according to Statistics Canada.

While the number of Canadian visitors to China may not carry the same economic weight, there is another reason why the Chinese want to attract more foreign tourists.

With a new chapter in bilateral relations and China’s desire to become a global power, using the soft power of tourism could be seen as an effective tool to achieve these goals.

“We believe that tourists from different countries can come here to fully understand the country’s development,” said Li, director of Utour Group.