2018 has been declared the Canada-China Year of Tourism and to strengthen those ties, a delegation has just returned from China where Tourism was the number one focus.
Michele Saran is CEO of Tourism Nova Scotia and she was part of that delegation.
Saran tells Acadia News, China is the world’s fastest-growing, highest-spending outbound travel market and the second largest trading partner both nationally and provincially.
She says even the South Shore left a big impact on Chinese tour operators.
“I showed them a picture of the South Shore region where people were standing on a beach and looking up at the stars and they couldn’t believe that you could actually go outside and see the stars at night,” says Saran. “China is the world’s largest and fastest growing and highest spending outbound travel market; this is an exciting opportunity for Nova Scotia because we just hired an in-market representative to be based in China to help us to advance our agenda there.”
Tourism in Nova Scotia saw record breaking numbers last year alone and Saran says they hope to reach their goal of $4 billion dollars in revenue by 2024.
Nationally, The Federal Government hopes to double the number of Chinese tourists coming to Canada by 2021.
Story by Craig Power
Above Photo: Mahone Bay Inner Harbour, by Craig Power © June 2018.
