The Hongcouver | Sasa vs Stanley Park: Can Vancouver stay true to itself as Chinese tourism booms?
Carriage operator says mainlanders deserve experiences that are genuine, not tailor-made
How should Vancouver meet the challenge and opportunity presented by soaring numbers of mainland Chinese tourists?
Will Sasa stores and milk-powder outlets line Robson Street? Or is there a better way to satisfy the influx, while remaining true to the attractions that brought them in the first place?
Now, rising numbers of his Chinese passengers are just as likely to be affluent young families with children, or independent travellers.
The guest profile for O’Neil’s 32-year-old business and Vancouver’s tourism industry as a whole is changing fast. In 2013, there were 181,975 overnight visitors to Vancouver from mainland China, their number having surged 26 per cent from the year before. In the process, they leapfrogged both Australians and Britons to become the most prolific non-US foreign visitors to the city (whose proximity to the US border ensures Americans will retain top spot for the foreseeable future).
O’Neil’s carriages, drawn by a variety of magnificent draught-horses, take visitors on hour-long narrated tours of the 400-hectare park, a business model that has changed little since the park was created in 1888. Such tours ended in the 1950s, but O’Neil reintroduced them in 1982.