Dean Fortin is back in Victoria after a two-week trade mission to China with more than a few deals inked -- he's come back with a promise that the city will be back.

"This is a process, not an event," the mayor of Victoria told a group of business-people who had gathered for a report on the mission, which wrapped up May 1.

Fortin said the $400,000 in deals Victoria businesses signed during the trip are a small fraction of what is possible.

"The mission was an investment. If we can continue to follow up we have an opportunity to expand that tenfold -- it's valuable in the instant but more valuable over time," Fortin said in an interview.

Fortin, Sasha Angus of the Greater Victoria Development Agency, Dave Cowen of Butchart Gardens and Saul Klein of the University of Victoria gave a brief rundown of the two-week visit that included meetings in Shanghai, Suzhou (Victoria's sister city), Changsha and Nanning.

The overall impression Fortin was left with after the visit was Victoria has an opportunity to forge lasting partnerships in the niche markets of tourism, education and high-tech.

Fortin said the city sold itself as one of the most livable in the world which plays well in all three areas.

"Tourism for example is unique, Vancouver Island is unique and ... there's a huge opportunity to expand, especially with the American market taking years to recover," he said.

He said Victoria's setting, which makes it ideal as a tourism destination, also works for the education and high-tech sectors.

Fortin argued Victoria should be top of mind when you can send your children to any school in the world or are looking for a safe, clean and green environment to establish advanced technology partnerships.

Cowen said there's an indication approved destination status could come through soon -- perhaps within weeks -- allowing Victoria and the rest of Canada to finally market the destination in China.

In an interview, however, Cowen cautioned it's not a case of simply opening the doors and watching Chinese tourists stream in. "We have to keep good momentum going forward and put an actual sales strategy in place," he said.

"Victoria is a destination [China] is interested in, but a lot are going into Seattle and a number into Vancouver and back east so we will have to earn our traffic here. It's not a given we will have to go and compete for it."

Fortin said despite trade missions to China and other trips planned for Japan the city is not ignoring the country's biggest market, the U.S., which continues to have economic troubles.

"We need to spend 80 per cent of our time being successful here and taking care of businesses that are here and we cannot ignore our neighbours to the south, that's why we will spend time building connections with places like Seattle," he said.

"As much as we built this [trade mission] model for use in China we will use it in Seattle, Portland and Vancouver; we need to continue to build and develop relationships."

aduffy@tc.canwest.com