[sunsetmountainland]

With the low dollar the one area of the whole country that is doing well is Tourism.

Tourism is booming in Canada, especially from the U.S.

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/blogs/i...182413093.html

BC tourism growth projects to ‘record’ year

British Columbia continues to be a popular place for visitors, according to the latest data released by the provincial government, which used the holiday weekend to highlight 14% growth in overnight visits through the first five months of 2016.

At the end of May, the province had welcomed international visitors for more than 1.65 million overnight stays, even though overnight visitor growth for the month of May compared to 2015 (4.8%) lagged behind the national average (5.2%).

“It looks like 2016 will be a record-breaking year for B.C.’s tourism economy,” said Destination British Columbia CEO Marsha Walden in a statement Sunday.

“Residents and visitors alike are drawn to our refined cities perched in the raw wilderness, rugged coastlines, lush rainforests and monumental mountains.”

In addition, single-day visitation from the United States increased 10.2% through the end of May compared to last year, with more than 735,000 Americans making same-day trips to B.C.

China, Australia and the U.K. continue to be B.C.’s biggest sources of overseas tourists. But the international markets with the largest growth as of May 31 were Taiwan (41.4%), Mexico (38.1%) and Switzerland (37.8%).

With 4.6% fewer tourists recorded, Southeast Asia is one of few regions from which B.C. has received a noticeable decline in visitors this year.

The Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training and Responsible for Labour also pointed to revenue growth in the hotel sector exceeding 17%. Year-to-date hotel occupancy was noted as being up significantly in Whistler (5.7%) and Nanaimo (5.5%), while Vancouver hotels have similarly been busier with 4% more room bookings.

The ministry also reports increased passenger volume at major B.C. airports and a 4.5% increase in BC Ferries passengers.

http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/2016/08/01...to-record-year

Viva Vancouver! City on track to welcome record number of tourists

It seems that tourists just can't get enough of Vancouver.

After record numbers of visitors in 2014 and 2015, all things are pointing to another record year for tourists visiting the city, said Ty Speer, head of Tourism Vancouver.

"It's been a fantastic year," he said. "We're on a bit of a winning streak."

One reason for tourists coming to the city is the perception of safety.

"We are seen as a safe country, and we are seen as a safe and welcoming city. That's something we should all work very hard to protect."

That diverse, welcoming atmosphere was definitely part of last week's Pride Week celebrations, Speer said.

"We have a terrific inbound number of people who come here because of what we stand for."

Top origin countries

Speer said Vancouver received tourists from all ove the world, while the top three origin countries of tourists coming into Vancouver are Canada, the United States and China.

"We get a lot of visitors from Canada," he said. "Canadians are certainly enjoying their country and they're coming to enjoy Vancouver. That's fantastic."

Numbers of tourists from the United States and China both increased by 16 per cent and 13 per cent respectively compared to last year, he said.

He also said the city is seeing growth in markets not typically seen before — like Mexico.

"Through our partners at YVR, we have flights [to and from Mexico] and now we have nearly twice as many people coming in from Mexico as last year."

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/viva-vanco...140000954.html

A lot of the growth is too the great numbers for British Columbia has lots too do with YVR.

According to Statistics Canada, passenger rates increased at airports across Canada by 2.7%, to 133.4 million in 2015. The biggest expansion of fliers came in international traffic, up 6.6%. Domestic flights posted an increase of 1.9%.

Provincially, British Columbia recorded one of the largest increases in air travel with boosted numbers across the board: domestic (3.2%), transborder (3.6%) and international (6.7%).

Transborder travel is up over the past seven years (29%) as well as international flights (40%) and domestic travel (22.9%). Canada’s domestic travel sector still remains its largest with 79.5 million passengers taking to the skies last year, compared to transborder (26.5 million) and international (27.4 million) fliers.

One of the airports to see the biggest jump in terms of fliers last year was Gander International Airport in Newfoundland, which saw a 22% rise in domestic travellers and 18.6% climb in international fliers.

https://www.biv.com/article/2016/7/y...all-time-high/