The rising political tension between China and Canada could threaten Chinese visitation to B.C., and at least one Victoria hotelier is concerned about it.
Reid James, general manager of the Hotel Grand Pacific, which has seen its Chinese business increase significantly each year since Canada was granted approved destination status by China in 2010, said the growing rift could mean trip cancellations and lost revenue.
“I’m very concerned. We’ve been selling into China for eight years and [business] has grown every year,” he said. “We just want the two countries to resolve this, it can’t continue like this. We want a healthy country and economy and China makes us better.”
Canada’s arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou at Vancouver airport on Dec. 1 at the request of the U.S. Justice Department touched off an escalating political spat with China.
It resulted in the detention of two Canadians in China, the imposition of a death sentence on a Canadian convicted of drug smuggling and duelling travel advisories warning their respective citizens to reconsider any plans to travel between the two countries.
“That’s not a healthy situation,” said James, who noted many hotels around the region house Chinese visitors and Chinese students who are in Canada learning English.
Chinese visitation has picked up considerably since Canada was granted approved destination status by China in 2010. That allowed Canadian tourism businesses and destination marketing organizations to actively market Canadian tourism in China, while Chinese tour operators could organize, promote and advertise group travel packages to this country.
According to Statistics Canada, Chinese visitation to B.C. grew 7.1 per cent in a year to 335,000 overnight entries in 2017, the last full year for which data was available. Through the first 10 months of 2018 there were 285,000 Chinese overnight visitors.
According to Destination Canada, Chinese tourists spend an average of $2,464 on each trip and contributed an estimated $1.7 billion to the economy in 2017.
Many tourism businesses contacted for this story chose not to comment on the situation.
Destination B.C., which markets the province to the world, said in an emailed statement that it does not comment on the potential impact of policy or legislation.
It would only say that “China continues to be our largest international market after the U.S. and strategically important.”
Paul Nursey, chief executive of Destination Victoria, which markets the region and has in the past committed resources to building its share of the Chinese market, could not be reached for comment.
Canadian tour operators specializing in travel to China are also warning the growing diplomatic rift between the two countries is scaring their clients away, while those that bring Chinese tourists to Canada foresee a similar drop in interest that could put a billion-dollar industry at risk.
“We’re suffering. We are suffering,” said Julius Yan, who owns Laurus Travel, a Vancouver-based agency that has focused on tours to Asia for about two decades.
Yan has fielded a lot of calls and emails from concerned Canadian travellers since the Canadian travel advisory was issued — though interest from Americans has been picking up despite the unfolding situation.
Many of the Canadians who contacted him wanted to cancel their trips, he said, which last between nine and 33 days, and cost $1,625 to $17,550 before airfare.
He’s spent a lot of time reassuring those clients that law-abiding tourists shouldn’t worry.
“It would be very, very foolish for the Chinese to do anything to innocent tourists,” he said. “There’s no reason for the Chinese government to frame a Canadian who goes there to spend money, right?”
Yan managed to convince his nervous clients not to cancel their trips, but to postpone them by a few months to a September or October departure date.
He’s swallowing the costs associated with that switch, including airline cancellation fees and hotel deposits. “We can’t punish our customers,” Yan said, adding that if there was no political crisis, the company would go strictly by the book, but in a situation like this, it has to be sympathetic.
This week, a school in Calgary decided to cancel a spring trip to China for 25 students and teachers “due to this increased risk level,” said a Calgary Board of Education spokeswoman in a statement. “As long as the current government of Canada risk level is in place, we will not have students travelling to China,” said Joanne Anderson.
In addition to cancellations and deferrals, Yan said he’s also concerned that Canadians who wanted to visit China are now not booking tours. In the 48 hours since Canada’s travel advisory changed, the number of Canadians clicking on the agency’s internet ads has been dropping, he said. “That’s a very strong indicator.”
There are signs the tension is having similar repercussions on the number of Chinese travellers interested in coming to Canada.
318 Arctic Colour Tours, which caters to Chinese tourists, offers several trips throughout the Arctic, including aurora-chasing expeditions. While no one has cancelled a visit yet, the start of this year has been slower than previous years, said Ying Lai, a part owner, from Whitehorse.
She said it’s unclear if political tensions are to blame. Other Whitehorse tour operators have also reported fewer bookings, she said, but it could be a result of economic headwinds in China.
