Tourisme Montreal and the Tourism Administration of Guangzhou Municipality Sign a MoU

(Source: Travel Weekly China)

Tourisme Montreal and the Tourism Administration of Guangzhou Municipality have just signed a memorandum of understanding during a bilateral meeting held at the Metropolis World Congress, which is being attended by 100 mayors from the world's largest cities. Numerous business sectors, including tourism, constitute areas of opportunity for the two cities.

Both tourism bureaus have agreed to work together on boosting tourism numbers and promoting bi-directional urban tourism. They will share their knowledge on topics such as performance indicators, statistics, welcome strategies, technology tools and more to improve the entities' respective operating procedures.

"An increase in direct air links to China is generating excellent development opportunities for Montreal. In addition to attracting more tourists from this strategic market, this memorandum of understanding will allow Tourisme Montreal to learn more about how we can improve Montreal's appeal and bring innovation to the city's tourism offer," said Yves Lalumiere, President and CEO of Tourisme Montreal.

China is the fourth most important overseas market for Montreal, after France, the United Kingdom and Germany. In 2016, some 84,000 Chinese tourists came to Montreal and approximately 110,000 are expected in 2017. Tourisme Montreal is anticipating that the volume of Chinese tourists will jump by 30%. In comparison, this projection was 18% in 2016 before the new direct flights were introduced. This surge shows how essential air accessibility is for increasing tourism numbers.