Url.Action parameters?

The following is the correct overload (in your example you are missing a closing } to the routeValues anonymous object so your code will throw an exception):

<a href="<%: Url.Action("GetByList", "Listing", new { name = "John", contact = "calgary, vancouver" }) %>">
    <span>People</span>
</a>

Assuming you are using the default routes this should generate the following markup:

<a href="/Listing/GetByList?name=John&amp;contact=calgary%2C%20vancouver">
    <span>People</span>
</a>

which will successfully invoke the GetByList controller action passing the two parameters:

public ActionResult GetByList(string name, string contact) 
{
    ...
}