BC's Tourism Heats Up

For B.C.’s tourism industry, 2011 is increasingly looking like the year of the dragon.

While Tourism Vancouver is predicting that travel to Vancouver will increase modestly from most markets this year — with international exposure from the 2010 Olympics a primary reason — the big news is China, which is expected to lead the way in tourism with a 22-per-cent anticipated hike in overnight visitors to the city.

Tourism BC is predicting a 15-per-cent hike in Chinese visitors to the province as a whole.

Although China’s 2011 numbers will remain much lower than traditional sources including the U.S. and the U.K., there’s tremendous growth potential from the Middle Kingdom.

The reason?

Approved destination status with China, which came into effect in June 2010, now enables Chinese visitors to travel to Canada through organized, pre-sold group tours.

“It’s certainly one of the fastest growing markets,” said Stephen Pearce, Tourism Vancouver’s vice-president of leisure travel and digital marketing.

“But the total magnitude is still quite modest. We’re looking at 125,000 to 130,000 overnight visitors from mainland China [in 2011].

“We’ll probably see it as our largest overseas market [outside of North America] by the end of the decade.”

Cam Routledge, Tourism BC’s director of marketing, overseas, agreed.

“We have a forecast of 15-per-cent growth for China on top of 20-per-cent growth we experienced [for 2010] to the end of November. And that’s pretty heady growth.”

Routledge said China ranks fourth in terms of numbers of overseas visitors to B.C. after the U.K., Australia and Japan, but that “will likely change as growth patterns continue.”

According to Tourism Vancouver, overnight visits to Vancouver from all markets will rise 3.6 per cent in 2011 compared with 2010.

Besides China, travel to the city is expected to increase seven per cent from South Korea, five per cent from India, four per cent from Japan, three per cent from Australia, two per cent from the U.S. and one per cent from the U.K.

However, travel to Vancouver is expected to ease by four per cent from Mexico and one per cent from Germany.

As well, 2011 is set to be Vancouver’s strongest convention year ever (in terms of generated hotel room nights) with 22 conventions planned this year.

Those conventions are expected to result in 143,000 delegates and an estimated 222,000 hotel room nights (up from 166,000 in 2010).

According to the Ministry of Tourism, B.C.’s $13-billion tourism industry — which employs roughly 129,000 people — saw international overnight visitors to B.C. jump 7.5 per cent in November 2010 compared with November of the previous year, bringing 175,121 visitors to the province that month.

There were also sharp increases year-over-year in other key Asia-Pacific markets, including South Korea, India and Southeast Asia.

B.C.’s ski resorts have also been a draw for visitors, especially from the U.S., and that’s expected to continue this year.

“Our ski resorts are experiencing a great season so far, with record snowfall and heightened attention as a result of the 2010 Winter Games. We can expect more great things to come,” said Margaret MacDiarmid, minister of tourism, trade and investment.

Routledge agreed, noting U.S. visitors make up 19 per cent of visitors to B.C. and contribute 21 per cent of tourism revenue.

One company that anticipates more business this year — especially from emerging markets like India and Brazil — is Rocky Mountaineer, the Vancouver-based luxury train service that has moved over one million tourists on excursions through the Interior and to Whistler.

“We’re looking for double-digit growth this year,” said Ian Robertson, the company’s director of corporate communications. “Most of our business comes from Australia, the U.S., Europe and Canada.”

Robertson said that while Germany and India are the company’s two primary new markets, a growing Brazilian clientele is also a big part of Rocky Mountaineer’s plans.

“We’re starting to see the benefits of the Olympics in 2011,” added Robertson, who said both India’s and Brazil’s emerging middle and upper-middle-classes have a “huge desire to travel to Canada.”

bmorton@vancouversun.com