几周前，加拿大总理马丁在访问中国时曾宣布，中国最终同意加拿大为中国公民旅游目的地国。消息传出，加拿大旅游界为之精神大振，旅游官员开始大声惊呼“中国人快来了”。那么，中国游客究竟何时到来，他们又会给加拿大带来些什么，这已成为媒体关注的一个热点。有评论称，尽管离大批中国游客的到来还相距甚远，但对于一个中产阶层正逐步扩大的国家，等待绝对值得，何况加拿大还是白求恩的故乡，而重感情的中国人又一向钟情于拜访名人故居。
多伦多星报2月3日发表的评论称，虽然在马丁总理宣布加拿大已成为中国公民旅游目的地国，但距离大批中国游客的蜂涌而至还有很长一段时间，至少不会象加拿大旅游界所期待的那样迅速。加拿大旅游官员私下透露说，若是两国达成的旅游协议真要落实到实处，恐怕还需要一年或更长的时间。
文章称，尽管这样，仍值得加拿大旅游业去耐心等待。因为中国已成为一个富裕的旅游大国，逐步增加的中产阶层，将会很快拥有足够的旅游费用，并把它花费在他们的旅游目的地。文章说，我们不妨计算一下，中国拥有15亿人口，即使只有百分之一的想在未来几年出国旅游，那么它的总和也高达1500万人次。
不过，加拿大人也别太乐观了，毕竟并不只有加拿大正在向中国旅游“大献殷勤”。到目前为止，全球共有60多个国家已被中国政府列为公民旅游目的地国，据中国内部消息透露，到了2005年年底，中国旅客可旅游的国家将象雨后春笋般地激增至90多个。
这篇评论文章的作者，为了向读者描绘中国游客给全球旅游业所带来的巨大冲击，特意举出了一个亲眼目睹的实例。德国已在几年前就被中国政府批准为公民旅游目的地国，作者也曾在几年前到德国旅游时，碰到了一大群中国游客，那是在德国一个名叫特里尔(Trier)小城，在一条已被世界教科文组织列为古迹的狭窄的小路上，挤满了一大群中国游客。
一名德国导游向这位加拿大作者介绍说，现在来特里尔旅游的旅客，绝大多数是中国人。作者自问自答说，为什么特里尔会吸引这么多中国游客呢？原因很简单，这里是有共产之父之称的马克思的诞生地。而中国人又一向喜欢访问那些名胜古迹，还有那些被他们崇拜的名人故居。
“天啊，那是不是意味着我们加拿大的格莱文赫斯特(Gravenhurst)会更受中国人的欢迎？绝对有可能，因为这个位于安大略省的小村，就是’伟大的共产主义战士诺尔曼.白求恩’的故乡，这位被中国人视为最有名的来自加拿大的革命英雄，就是在这个小村出生的。”随后，文章又用一大段文字来介绍这位加拿大英雄，成为中国人民的老朋友的经过，并认为白求恩的故乡必将成为中国游客的一个心中的“神殿”。
文章认为，另一个重要的现实原因在于，加拿大已成为北美第一个被中国政府批准的中国公民旅游目的地国，这就给加拿大提供了要比墨西哥和美国更大的优势，来让加拿大人向中国人展示北美的生活方式。而加拿大旅游官员也正强烈地向中国人表明，加拿大绝对是中国游客应该也值得花钱旅游的国家。
此外，与美国相比，中国人一直对温和而不好斗的加拿大颇有好感。文章说，近年来赴加旅游的中国游客已大幅激增，已给加拿大带来的1.5亿加元的收入。
地大物博、人口稀少的加拿大，拥有着数不尽的旅游资源，这对中国人来说也十分重要，用加拿大一名旅游官员的话说：“他们喜欢我们的开阔空地，喜欢我们的辽阔公园，喜欢我们的文化和我们的现代化城市。”
（星网编者注）原文可浏览
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&call_pageid=971358637177&c=Article&cid=1107256712599
Feb. 3, 2005. 01:00 AM
China deal is worth the wait
Could take a year to get full ADS status
MARC ATCHISON
“The Chinese are coming! The Chinese are coming!”
That’s what Canadian tourism officials were enthusiastically shouting from the highest Beijing pagodas a few weeks ago when Prime Minister Paul Martin announced that our country had finally been granted Approved Destination Status (ADS) by the Chinese.
Okay, when can we expect the horde of Chinese tourists to start arriving? Well, not as soon as we had first hoped.
In fact, Canadian tourism officials now tell me it could take another year or even longer before all the “I’s” are dotted and the “T’s” crossed on an agreement that will eventually see the Chinese allow more outbound tourist traffic to Canada.
It will be well worth the wait.
The Chinese are the nouveaux riches of tourism. They have lots of pent-up travel enthusiasm and their growing middle class will soon have lots of vacation money to spend in destinations that have been, until now, off-limits.
Do the math. Even if 1 per cent of the 1.5 billion Chinese get to travel over the next few years, that adds up to about 15 million tourists.
Don’t kid yourself. Canada is not alone in trying to woo the Chinese. So far, more than 60 countries have been granted ADS status and by the end of 2005, that number could mushroom to 90, according to Chinese sources.
While touring Germany a few years ago, I saw firsthand the positive impact Chinese tourism can have on a country. We were visiting the medieval city of Trier just a few months after Germany had been granted full ADS status and the narrow streets of the UNESCO World Heritage Site were jammed with Chinese tourists.
“They (the Chinese) are now the largest block of tourists coming to Trier,” our guide that day informed me.
Trier, incidentally, was the birthplace of Karl Marx, the father of communism. And the Chinese, it seems, favour visiting places where people they admire once called home.
Goodness, does that mean Gravenhurst will be more popular with the Chinese than, let’s say, Banff? Could be, since the Ontario hamlet is where Canada’s best-known revolutionary and hero to the Chinese, Dr. Norman Bethune, was born.
The birth home of the good doctor, who worked with Mao’s Communist forces in the late ’30s and saved many lives with his innovative mobile blood bank units, is already considered a shrine to the Chinese.
Another important fact is that Canada will be the first North American destination to be blessed with ADS status. That gives us a large advantage over Mexico and the United States to impress the Chinese with our North American lifestyle. Canadian tourism officials are already making a strong case with the Chinese that Canada is the place where they should be spending their tourist dollars.
The Canadian Travel Commission (CTC), the federally-funded agency that promotes tourism on our behalf around the globe, has hired a Beijing-based manager to promote us in the potentially lucrative Chinese market. He’ll work out of the group’s newly opened offices in the Chinese capital.
According to Pierre Gauthier, the CTC’s executive director for the Asia-Pacific region, Canada will also be very visible at tourist trade shows in China ― especially at the huge Beijing Travel Mart slated for November.
Last year, Canada welcomed more than 87,000 Chinese tourists to our shores ― an increase of 37 per cent over the previous year. Those visitors, according to officials, pumped $150 million into Canada’s tourism sector. Gauthier and other Canadian officials predict those numbers will triple once we get full ADS status.
“China is such a huge market for us,” said Gauthier from his Ottawa office. “With their growing middle class, the potential for us (Canada) is just tremendous.
“The Chinese have always had a great fondness for Canada. They love our open spaces, our national parks, our culture and our modern cities,” said Gauthier. The ADS agreement only governs group tours to Canada and a strict set of guidelines set down by the Chinese must be agreed to before any country gets the official stamp of approval.
The Chinese reserve the right to approve the tour operators, both at home and in Canada, who will handle their outbound groups.
“That is just one of the reasons these negotiations take time,” said Gauthier.
Another, according to sources, is that the Chinese are nervous that many of their tourists may not leave Canada once they arrive. In fact, according to sources, that issue may become a major stumbling block to any agreement.
Ping Huang, the director of tourism for China in Canada, said “a working schedule has been ironed out,” between the two countries, but agreed it could take some time before final approval is given.
“This is just such a positive for our industry,” said Randy Williams, president of the Tourism Industry Association of Canada, which represents thousands of businesses with ties to the tourist industry.
Annie Tsu, executive vice president of Tour East Holidays, the only Canadian tour operator who has offices in China at the present time and a company that could benefit from its expertise of moving tourists between Canada and China, said the fact the both sides have set a working schedule is significant and that “all good things come to those who wait.”
After coping with SARS and all the other ills that Canada’s tourism sector has had to deal with over the past few years, the ADS news couldn’t have come at a better time.
It has taken five years of hard bargaining to finally be recognized by the Chinese. We can surely wait another year for the agreement to be signed.
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