A great 2017 for BC’s tourism industry
Posted February 22, 2018 5:43 pm.
Last Updated February 22, 2018 5:44 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – It turns out 2017 was a big year for tourism in our province. According to Statistics Canada, there was a more than three per cent increase in international visitors in December of last year, over the same month in 2016, which resulted in 11,869 more visitors in BC.
Increases for December 2017 (over December 2016) include
- France – up 42.9 per cent
- Japan – up 26.2 per cent
- South Korea – up 21.3 per cent
- Australia – up 15.7 per cent
- China – up 14.5 per cent
- Germany – up 14.4 per cent
- United States (excluding same-day visitors) – up 1.9 per cent
- Asia/Pacific – up 8.9 per cent
- Europe – up 5.3 per cent
Increases for 2017 include
- Australia – up 20.4 per cent
- Germany – up 15.4 per cent
- Mexico – up 12.9 per cent
- China – up 7.1 per cent
- France – up 5.7 per cent
- Japan – up 5.1 per cent
- South Korea – up 3 per cent
- United States (excluding same-day visitors) – up 1.9 per cent
- United Kingdom – up 0.2 per cent
- Asia/Pacific – up 6.4 per cent
- Europe – up 3.4 per cent
The province says, in total, over 5.7 million overnight visitors came to the province last year which is an uptick of 3.3 per cent, or 181,700 visitors, over 2016.
“The growth in 2017 is attributed to several factors, including increased access to BC from several key international markets, such as Australia, Germany, Mexico, China and France. Increased air traffic to Vancouver contributes to the vitality of the tourism industry,” says the government in a statement.
Marsha Walden with Destination BC says tourism is a fiercely competitive market. “The validation, if you will, that we find is that international travellers continue to see British Columbia as a very attractive destination and we’re a premium priced one, so we’re holding our own and growing really well in that kind of a marketplace.”
She admits the number of people driving in from the US is a little slower than usual, possibly because of a bad winter and the record-breaking wildfire season last summer. “And the floods in the Okanagan, so there were a lot of things that were perhaps on the minds of our American guests in considering where they might like to go for a couple of days.”
The province says the tourism industry is linked directly to over 133,000 jobs.
