TIAC pleased with Harper’s China initiatives

Canada’s newly unveiled tourism marketing campaign in China will help spur economic growth and create jobs across the country, says the Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC). Prime Minister Stephen Harper launched Canada’s 2012 marketing campaign, as well as the opening of a Beijing office for the Canadian Tourism Commission, as part of his trade mission to China. “China is Canada’s fastest growing tourism market, and one of Canada’s great economic opportunities,”said TIAC president David Goldstein. “These strategic investments by the Harper government will help us to promote ourselves to this burgeoning outbound travel market, creating vital economic activity and job growth across the country.”Tourism is the world’s fourth fastest-growing export sector, and increasing travel between countries has been demonstrated to encourage more trade in other economic sectors,”added Goldstein. “Increased travel from China to Canada will unquestionably help to open that market to many of our other exports.”TIAC is encouraged that the Prime Minister’s announcement on promotion follows the introduction of new visa initiatives in 2011, further demonstrating the effectiveness of the whole-of-government approach set forth in the Federal Tourism Strategy. The number of visitors to Canada from China has grown significantly since the 2009 signing of an Approved Destination Status agreement between the two countries. Over the past year, Canada has seen a 24% increase in visitors from China, rapidly making it one of Canada’s most vital inbound tourism markets. Statistics Canada data from last month revealed that China has surpassed Australia as Canada’s fifth largest inbound tourism market, behind the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany. (http://www.tiac.travel)