Beijing’s decision to allow group travel to Canada to resume for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic has sparked a surge in interest in visiting the country among Chinese consumers, with Chinese travel platforms recording a jump in related searches.
China announced it was ending the group tour ban in early November, just days after Chinese President Xi Jinping met Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in South Korea and called for relations between the two countries to get “back onto the right track”.
The move triggered an immediate reaction on Chinese travel platforms, with searches for flights to Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto on Qunar jumping by 223 per cent, 137 per cent and 61 per cent, respectively, within 30 minutes of the news breaking, according to the site’s parent company, Trip.com Group.
