2015 is expected to be a record-year for conventions in Vancouver
Posted February 28, 2015 10:05 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Vancouver continues to be a hot-bed for international trade shows and meetings.
165,000 out-of-towners are expected to hit the Convention Centre this year with 40,000 of those expected to come from outside North America.
Dave Gazley with Tourism Vancouver says that’s important since the farther they travel, the more time they spend here.
“They tend to stay a bit longer because of the length of travel to get here; it’s a long haul trip so they are looking at a five to seven day stay where as a Canadian or a US congress attendee would probably be more in the neighbourhood of three to four and half days max
You know it’s around $400 a day that they are going to spend in the city on their hotel accommodation, on restaurants, on retail, on transportation, [and] on attractions. All those things that keep our economy humming and keep people employed. Those visitors are doing all that stuff to support the local economy when they come.”
Those numbers are being driven by the city’s largest medical gathering ever 15,000 coming for the World Congress of Dermatology in June, along with an International AIDS conference in July, a gynaecology get-together in October and the World Diabetes Congress in November.
