OTTAWA, July 30, 2015 – Today, the Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC) welcomed the announcement from the Hon. Chris Alexander, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration on the expansion of the China Transit Program to 5 key cities in China.

“The expansion of the China Transit Program is good news for the tourism industry. By allowing more international passengers to transit through Canadian airports, we are creating more demand for air access,” notes Charlotte Bell, TIAC President and CEO. “Ultimately transiting passenger programs increase volume through Canadian airports and provide lift into Canada and raise awareness of our product offerings to these highly sought-after international travellers.”

The program allows a limited number of Chinese nationals to transit through Canada to the US when travelling by air on designated airlines with a US visa. TIAC is particularly pleased with the choice of cities the program will expand to; Xiamen, Fouzhou, Chengdu, Shenyang, and Harbin. This opens travel options through Canada directly to roughly 17 million Chinese in these growing cities.

China is Canada’s top emerging market which continues to grow year over year. In the five years since Canada was granted Approved Destination Status (ADS), China has grown to be Canada’s second largest inbound travel market. In this time, Chinese travellers have spent over $600 million while visiting Canada and our total visitation has more than doubled.

Canada has benefitted greatly from this growth, and TIAC is proud to be an integral part of facilitating quality travel experiences for Chinese visitors to Canada under the ADS program.

“The expansion of the China Transit Program is another step in the right direction, but there is still untapped opportunity in the Chinese travel market. Currently Canada attracts 0.3% of the market for outbound Chinese travellers. There is much more we can and must do to get our fair share of this vitally important travel market. TIAC continues to work with government and Parliament to achieve this goal,” concluded Bell.

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ABOUT THE TOURISM INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION OF CANADA

Established in 1931, The Tourism Industry Association of Canada is the only national organization representing the full cross-section of Canada's $88.5 billion tourism industry. TIAC's members include air and passenger rail services, airport authorities, local and provincial destination authorities, hotels, attractions and tour operators.

For more information, please contact:

Rob Taylor
VP, Public & Industry Affairs
Tourism Industry Association of Canada
rtaylor@tiac.travel
t: 613-238-6251
c: 613-716-5442