Travellers from China brighten B.C. tourism picture

Sam Cooper-The Province / Times Colonist
December 20, 2012

A surge in tourism in October and powerful growth in visits from China are helping to brighten a challenging year in B.C.’s tourism sector.

There were 226,069 total visits to B.C. this October, a 6.5-per-cent increase over October 2011, according to Statistics Canada.

Strong factors included a 6.7-per-cent increase in United States overnight visits; however, with a strong Canadian dollar, day visits from the U.S. tumbled by 10 per cent compared to October 2011, for a net U.S. visit loss of 1.5 per cent.

Meanwhile travel from economically-depressed Europe plummeted in October, with major source countries Germany and the United Kingdom falling more than eight per cent each, compared to October 2011.

The unmitigated bright spot in B.C. tourism was a huge surge of 26.8 per cent in visits from China, compared to October 2011.

Stephen Pearce, vice-president at Tourism Vancouver, said travel from China took off in 2010 when Vancouver hosted the 2010 Games, and Canada received “approved destination status” from the Chinese government.

“We are a new destination for China, and now that Vancouver has brand recognition in China, we’ve become the gateway for Chinese travel to Canada,” Pearce said.

Stats from TourismBC show the strong connection between Chinese travel to Vancouver and the whole country, with visits to B.C. and Canada up an identical 19.6 per cent so far in 2012.

Roy Chou, of Chinese tour operator TPI Silkway in Richmond, said the company has seen explosive growth over the past two years, with business from China jumping 186 per cent in 2011, and another 115 per cent in 2012. It’s expected strong growth will continue for another three to five years, Chou said.

Besides Vancouver’s growing recognition stemming from the 2010 Games, increased immigration from China to B.C. over the past five years is boosting tourism from Chinese relatives and friends, Chou said. Visitors enjoy seeing natural scenery in Vancouver, and travelling to the Interior and the Rockies, he said.

According to the provincial government, in 2011 the tourism industry generated $13.4 billion in revenue, and the largest increase driving B.C. GDP was from tourism.

In Vancouver, the industry took a giant hit in the global financial crisis of late 2008, with business falling six per cent in 2009. In 2010, with the boost from the 2010 Winter Games, tourism in Vancouver was up four per cent. Business fell back in 2011 by 1.5 per cent, and is back up by one per cent in 2012.

Across B.C., tourism is up 1.1 per cent to date in 2012, compared to a 1.9-per-cent rise across Canada.

scooper@theprovince.com

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