by Chris Muise  译/刘佳宁

Charlie Zhang, Marketing Manager of Piyao International Travel, says Nova Scotia needs to put some effort into targeted marketing if we want to see more Chinese tourists. Photo: Chris Muise 
貔貅国旅市场经理张先生认为，吸引中国游客来拿省需要在市场开发方面投入大量工作。

据统计，中国仅去年一年就有8300万出境游客，而这一数字预计还将持续上升。近几年，越来越多的中国游客来往加拿大，却很少人选择来到新斯科舍省（以下简称”拿省”）。

11月中旬，拿省的业界人士齐聚省旅游协会（TIANS）年度峰会，解析旅游市场，对来年市场的趋势和发展做出预和规划。与会者提出，吸引更多中国游客来东部沿海省份十分重要。

貔貅国旅市场经理张先生表示，中国市场是相当大的。他介绍道，去年，共有27.7万中国游客来到加拿大，相较于2011年增长了26％。他将这一大量增长的数字归功于中国政府在2010年把加拿大列为旅游目的地国家。遗憾的是，因为地理位置相隔遥远，其中来到拿省和其他东部沿海省份的华人游客只占一小部分。旅客们在加拿大直达的不是西海岸的不列颠哥伦比亚省，就是东部的安大略省。

“哈利法克斯离中国太远，而且没有直达航班，” 张先生解释道，“这是拿省旅游业在地理上的劣势，意味着东部沿海省份不如安省和卑诗省受欢迎。”

这并不代表拿省没有中国游客，可大部分都是商务旅行，很少是专门来度假的。张先生介绍说，旅行社有专门为中国游客设计的哈利法克斯旅游套餐，但这个套餐里在哈法停留的时间只有一天。他和其他业界人士都很想改变这一现状。

拿省旅游局局长Patrick Sullivan先生说：“中国出境游人数每年呈百万增长。市场增长速度之快，让我们有些迫不及待。我们现在必须为这个市场做好准备。”

中国游客来拿省面临地理和成本的双重障碍。业内人士希望采用双重战略，在中国进行目标市场营销的同时，帮助本地产业链中的大小企业做好准备，以满足华人游客的需求。

“我们需要因地制宜，需要突破，要研发真正能够吸引中国游客的旅游项目。” 省旅游协会董事会主席Scott MacAulay先生说。“我正在与多方面合作，力求解决这些问题。”

而张先生认为，尽管在交通上有些不便，拿省还是有很多优势的。“这里气候宜人，文化独特。我们可以设计一些针对上流社会人士的产品，包括来这里打高尔夫球。”

大家一致认为，拿省未来的旅游市场无论采用什么策略，其突破都不是一朝一夕就有所成。这项庞大的工程需要多方合作，为东部沿海省份做好充足准备，迎接大量的潜在新游客的到来。

“我们还有很多工作要做。” Sullivan说：“可能需要一年甚至三年的时间。”

MacAulay说：“我想，拿省，甚至整个加拿大，才刚刚开始了解中国市场的潜在商机。今后的路还很长。” (完）

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Tourism from China is a booming trade these days – there were 83 million outbound Chinese tourists last year, and that number is expected to rise. Canada has welcomed hundreds of thousands of these Chinese tourists onto her shores in the last few years, but few of these tourists seem to make their way to Nova Scotia.

Members of Nova Scotia’s tourism industry recently met at the annual TIANS (Travel Industry Association of Nova Scotia) Tourism Summit, where this year’s tourism season was deconstructed, and projections and plans for the next season were already underway. For some at the summit, correcting for this discrepancy in Chinese tourism to the Maritimes was of paramount importance.

“Right now, the Chinese market is very big,” says Charlie Zhang, Marketing Manager for Piyao International Travel. “Last year, there was a total of 277,000 Chinese tourists who came to Canada. It’s a 26 per cent increase compared to 2011.”

Zhang credits the boom in Chinese tourists visiting our country to Canada being granted approved destination status in 2010. Unfortunately, in part due to geography, Nova Scotia and the other Atlantic provinces only see a small chunk of these Chinese visitors. Those traveling from China to Canada will land on either the west coast, or Ontario.

“Halifax is the farthest city from China, and there’s no direct flight that can reach Halifax from China,” says Zhang. “That means the maritime provinces are not as popular as Ontario and British Columbia. That’s the disadvantage of Nova Scotia tourism.”

That’s not to say Nova Scotia doesn’t see visitors from China, but a majority of these visitors are here for business purposes, and rarely travel here for pleasure alone. There exist Canadian tour packages for Chinese tourists, according to Zhang, that do include Halifax, but the itinerary only calls for a single day. Zhang wants that to change, and he’s not alone.

“With China increasing at millions of outbound visitors a year, we need to get ready,” says Patrick Sullivan, CEO of the Nova Scotia Travel Agency. “We are anxious, and we know that the Chinese market is growing dramatically, so we want to be ready.”

With geography and cost posing a roadblock to visiting Nova Scotia, those in the industry hope to employ a dual strategy of target marketing in China, and getting businesses and destinations over here prepared to offer what Chinese tourists want.

“We need to open our arms, and open our hearts, to these people, and develop a product that they’re going to want,” says Scott MacAulay, the Chair of the TIANS Board of Directors. “I’m working with a few groups now, and that’s just what they’re doing. They’re developing packages, they’re developing different reasons why Chinese people would come to Nova Scotia.”

“Although the transportation is not that convenient,” says Zhang, “Nova Scotia has a lot of advantages. We have the perfect weather. We have a unique culture. We can provide some products that focus on just the high-end level – those people who come here who can pay, just for golf.”

Whatever the strategies employed may be in the coming tourist seasons, all sides agree that this is not an overnight fix; it’s going to take a lot of work and cooperation to get the Maritimes ready for this potential influx of new visitors.

“There’s still some work to do,” says Sullivan. “I think we can do some of that over the next year, or two, or three.”