Passionate housing concern sells: Tourism Vancouver

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Negative reaction to local home prices, a tight rental market, and the cost of living don’t seem to be hurting the sales pitch of Vancouver as a destination abroad.

Tourism Vancouver CEO Ty Speer says for his team, it’s actually the opposite.

“Vancouverites are actually very passionate about their city and that’s something that we tap into.”

He says the conversation about local hot-button issues like housing, gives international travelers the impression that Vancouver is the place to be.

“They’re exercised about housing for two complimentary reasons. The first is they’re passionate about the city, and the 2nd is that they can see the impact that we’re an amazing city and what that does in terms of demand.”

The latest international tourism numbers from the province show from January to August, BC saw an 11.5 per cent increase in visitors from last year. There was an eight per cent increase between 2014 and 2015.

There were also more people choosing BC as a destination from the U.K. and Australia than in years past.

American visitors still make up the majority of travelers with a steady increase over last year.

Speer says the province’s numbers are echoed in Vancouver.

“I can say this with almost 100 per cent certainty, we will do another record year in 2016 when we close.”

He points to increased flight traffic as one reason Vancouver is seeing more overseas visitors.

Here is a breakdown of the increased visitor traffic in BC from the province’s latest August numbers compared to the same month in 2015:

“U.K. – up 32.1 per cent

Australia – up 28.8 per cent

Mexico – up 22 per cent

Japan – up 19.8 per cent

Europe – up 17.6 per cent

South Korea – up 10.4 per cent

China – up 10.2 per cent

United States – up 3.9 per cent

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