Despite significant year-over-year gains, ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ continues to attract fewer foreign visitors to the province than it did before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Data today from Statistics ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ show that there were 545,652 visits from foreign visitors entering ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ through ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ entry points in December. That is up 25.1 per cent, compared with 435,970 such visits in December 2022, but down nearly 5.5 per cent from the 577,206 such visitors in December 2019.
December was the second consecutive month that fewer foreign visitors arrived in ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ through ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½, compared with the same month pre-pandemic.
, but that success was short lived. In November, the number of those travellers to ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ through ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ was .
Some good news is that on a year-over-year basis, travel to ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ through ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ has been trending upward.
The 25.1-per-cent increase in those visits in December, compared to December 2022 is substantial, and it bucks a trend in recent months of the year-over-year jump for those visits being steadily less steep with each passing month.
The year-over-year percentage growth for foreign visitors to ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ through ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ was:
• 20.98 per cent in November;
• 26.16 per cent in October; and
• 38.18 per cent in September.
Visits from Americans always dominate within the number of international arrivals to ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ through ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ ports. There were 415,279 American visits to ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ though ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ in December, which was about 76.1 per cent of all such international visits in that month.
American visits to ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ through ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ in December were up 26.5 per cent from the 326,268 Americans who did that in December 2022.
The region where the number of visits to ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ through ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ has been lagging the most, compared with pre-pandemic times, is Asia.
That continues.
There were about 31 per cent fewer Asian nationals who visited ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ through ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ in December (49,771), compared with December 2019 (72,143). Fewer non-stop flights between Vancouver and Asia is largely responsible. There are also fewer airlines flying non-stop routes to Asia from Vancouver.
Year-over-year growth in the number of Asian visitors to ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ through ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ in December rose in line with the jump in overall international visits, at 25.1 per cent, compared with December 2022 (39,763.)
Destination British Columbia is set to release a more detailed breakdown of the international visits to ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½, on a country-by-country basis, in the weeks ahead.
One trend that has been strong is . Spurring those visits could be increased airline capacity on non-stop routes to Mexico, and lower fares in many cases than were provided pre-pandemic. The Mexican peso is also stronger today against the Canadian dollar than it was in December 2019.
Statistics ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ today did not segment out the number of Mexicans who visited ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ through ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ in December.
