ACTIVE AMERICA-CHINA SUMMIT TRAVELS TO BC
From March 11-13, 2014, the Active America-China Travel Summit will come to Greater Vancouver-Richmond, Canada for the first time. This one-of-a-kind event will bring together North American travel suppliers and destinations interested in attracting more Chinese visitors, with leading influential Chinese travel buyers looking to expand the range of products they offer their clients. “What makes AA China unique is that it enables travel sellers to access key Chinese tour operators without having to invest in a trip to China to meet pre-qualified travel buyers,”says Jake Steinman, CEO of NAJ Group, which has produced the event for the past five years. “AA China is the only North American-based event totally dedicated to promoting inbound tourism from China. In addition to identifying and recruiting leading Chinese tour operators, it also provides boutique-level service including Chinese interpreters for scheduled business appointments, translation of all supplier descriptions in Mandarin as well as a Mandarin speaking post event ‘follow-up concierge’ to assist attendees with their communications.”According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, China is now the fifth largest tourism market source for the US having delivered 1.3 million visitors in 2012 (a 30% increase). While over 288,000 visitors from China travelled to Canada in 2012, the Canadian Tourism Commission has forecasted a 20% increase in arrivals to 347,000 in 2013. With an average spend of $7,243 per trip for hotels, food, and shopping (50 per cent more than other overseas travellers) Chinese visitors are an attractive travel group. “We are very excited to welcome this boutique business-to-business and educational marketplace to Canada and to have the opportunity to showcase the best of Richmond and Greater Vancouver to over 40 new tour operators,”said Tracy Lakeman, CEO of Tourism Richmond. China is one of the fastest growing inbound tourism markets for Canada and Metro Vancouver. Thirteen per cent of Chinese long-haul pleasure travellers have placed Canada on their top three travel destinations consideration list. Gayle Morris, director of sales for Tourism Richmond said, “For many of the Chinese tour and receptive operators this will be their first visit to British Columbia and Canada. The Vancouver International Airport, which is in Richmond, now boasts the largest year-round flight capacity between China and Canada which makes us the gateway to North America for Chinese travellers.”(http://www.activeamericachina.net)
