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Was the $600,000 Royal Visit worth it? Destination BC says yes

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VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – We learned this week the Royal Visit to BC cost taxpayers just over $600,000 thanks to accommodation and transportation.

Local tourism organizations say the one-week trip was well worth it.

The visit turned millions of pairs of eyes onto our province. Destination BC says media coverage from the September trip resulted in millions of impressions, thanks in part to CNN, the BBC, and Vogue.

Royal Visit Canada Arrival and Opening Ceremonies

“Some of the world’s premier magazines and news outlets were covering where the Royals were going to [in BC]. So we saw about 130-million impressions from editorial coverage and social media coverage as well.”

Maya Lange with the organization says that is already paying out in more business.

 “International arrivals were very strong in British Columbia. There were about 4.9 million international visitors [that] came to BC during that period in 2016, over 2015. That’s about a 12 per cent increase over the previous year,” says Lange.

There was a 50 per cent increase in Vancouver hotel searches from the UK during the September visit.

She says the largest interest came from Great Britain, followed by Australia and Germany.

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