Chinese tour groups are expected to soon be able to visit Canada on tourist visas, as the two countries signed final agreements on Thursday (Canadian time) during the G20 Summit in Canada.

A memorandum of understanding on enabling Chinese tour groups to visit Canada was signed on Thursday Canadian time, marking "an important moment in the bilateral history of tourism cooperation", Shao Qiwei, head of the National Tourism Administration of China, said at a meeting with his Canadian counterparts in Ottawa on Wednesday.

China granted Approved Destination Status (ADS) to Canada last December, but it usually takes a few months to draft implementation details. The ADS makes it easier for Chinese to visit Canada on tourist visas instead of business visas and allows the Canadian tourism industry to actively market travel opportunities in China.

The Conference Board of Canada estimated that, after the ADS takes effect, the number of Chinese tourists to Canada would rise by up to 50 percent every year before 2015.

In 2008, 159,000 Chinese visited Canada, up 5.3 percent from the previous year, with each Chinese tourist spending 1,648 Canadian dollars ($1,600) on average, statistics provided by the Canadian Embassy in China said.

Canada has the advantage of "strong human infrastructure", said George Smitherman, Ontario's former deputy premier, who is now running for mayor of Toronto. Chinese are Canada's third largest ethnic group. About 400,000 people in Toronto alone trace their roots to the country. "These people with the language skills and cultural awareness are our secret weapons," Smitherman said.

But to understand Chinese tourists' needs is still a challenge facing Canadian tourism destination management.

Frank Kinsella, mayor of the township of Leeds and the Thousand Islands, and some 30 Canadians attended the 2010 Zhengzhou International Mayor's Forum on Tourism in mid-June to understand "what different cultures want". He said the town, a tourist attraction for 140 years, offers myriad walking trails and canoeing routes. "But I was told (by Chinese counterparts) that some of the things we have are not appealing to the Chinese," he said. "We need to do the mind switching and to think like Chinese." He said he hoped a local casino could get Chinese tourists to stay longer.

Visa issues are another problem for the local tourism industry. Bobby Cai, president of the Toronto-based Canada-China Tourism Association, said the country's refusal rate for visas for Chinese had at one point exceeded 35 percent, surpassing even the United States'.

Shao Qiwei has urged the Canadian side to further simplify the visa process for Chinese tour groups, in addition to adding signs in Chinese and Chinese TV channels.

In anticipation of the increased travel demand, both countries expanded capacity this month. Air Canada, the flag carrier of Canada, which reduced its total capacity by 14 percent last year because of falling travel demand, said it would resume double daily services to Beijing and Shanghai in June. It also planned to open a route to Guangzhou in 2013. Air China and China Eastern Airlines have also added flights between the two countries.

Relevant news in Chinese: 中加正式签署《关于便利中国旅游团队赴加拿大旅游的谅解备忘录》