Chinese tourists are traveling the world and visiting Niagara Falls, Ontario, but they're not spending a lot of time in the Canadian Cataract City. Now, there is a push on to change that.Visitors to Niagara Falls, Niagara-on-the-Lake, or Toronto are familiar with Chinese tour groups with a flag-waving leader taking them around, often traveling on a bus with its sides covered with Chinese messages. Usually, they are just on day trips through Niagara Region.
Tourism leaders are making trips to China to meet with the hundreds of tour operators who arrange group travel, seeking longer stays.
Anthony Annunziata, vice president of marketing for Marriott with two large hotels looking down on the falls, says hotels seeking Chinese business have to speak the language.
"It's absolutely critical. I can tell you the culture itself, they want to know that they are being embraced and they feel that you care about their business. And certainly by having employees that can speak Cantonese or Mandarin is absolutely critical in terms of landing and securing that business and making them feel comfortable that this is an area of the world they can come to and feel welcome," Annunziata says.
Annunziata says it's not as important to have Chinese menus because the travelers want the Canadian experience, from local fruit to local wines and other foods as they ride the Maid of the Mist, tour vineyards, or study the floral clock on the edge of the Niagara Gorge.
He says Chinese language isn't yet on the hotel's lobby signs, but it is coming.
