VANCOUVER — Travel agents are celebrating Beijing’s decision to resume group tourism to Canada after a five-year halt, hoping for the return of big-spending Chinese visitors who were a dominant presence for the industry before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Glynnis Chan, president of Vancouver-based Happy Times Travel and Tour Ltd., has been leading group tours for Chinese visitors to the city since the mid-1980s.

She said she expected a big boost for the local economy after Monday’s decision by China to resume group tours that Chan said “ground to a halt” in 2020 amid the pandemic.

Chan said the tourists she hosted would typically spend six weeks travelling Canada, estimating they’d spend more than $1,300 a day, with Stanley Park in Vancouver, the Rocky Mountains and Parliament Hill in Ottawa

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