I’m happy to see China continues to open up more international travel opportunities for its citizens - this week China granted “outbound” licenses to three foreign companies, thus allowing those firms and their joint venture partners in China to organize tours for Chinese tourists abroad.The three companies, European giant TUI based in Germany, America’s CITS American Express Travel Services and JTB New Century International Tours of Japan were granted the outbound licenses as part of a three-year pilot program launched by the all-powerful China National Tourism Authority.
Canada’s travel industry was shut out – that leaves Toronto-based Tour East Holidays as the only Canadian company licensed to operate offices in China (the 35-year-old Tour East Holidays has offices in Beijing and Shanghai). Tour East was one of several Canadian companies who did apply for an outbound license but were rejected. Maybe it’s time Stephen Harper and his Conservative government put pressure on the Chinese to give us a slice of the juicy outbound pie. The outbound licenses, after all, are the most coveted documents in the travel world right now, with companies worldwide hoping to tap directly into the Chinese thirst for foreign travel. Last year, almost 50 million Chinese travelled abroad and that figure is expected to grow to over 90 million by the end of 2011.
The three companies granted the license have had long relations with the Chinese. All three set up shop in China many years ago. However, I find it curious that American Express is ramping up its operations in China and winding them down in Canada – AmEx recently announced it was ending its retail travel operations in Canada, which will affect over 100 agencies. It’s also odd that AmEx is pulling out of Canada at a time when record numbers of Canadians are crossing the border into the U.S.
I’m left to wonder – is AmEx finding it easier to do business in communist China than Canada?
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