BC and Canada 2017 international visitor numbers up

Photo courtesy of Tourism Cowichan.

International visitor arrivals were up for B.C and Canada in 2017 when compared to the previous year, says a new report from Destination British Columbia.

In B.C. around 5.7 million visitors arrived, a 3.3 per cent increase, according to overnight customs entries data.

Canada as a whole saw a 4.4 per cent increase, with nearly 20.8 million.

The most visitors to the province were from the U.S., with almost 3.7 million coming overnight and 2.2 million staying for the same day.

China ranked second with visitors to B.C. with 334,994 arriving, Australia was third with 226,196.

In total 1.2 million overnight visitors arrived in the province from Asia and the Pacific, 553,480 arrived from Europe.

The report used information from Statistics Canada did not account for all visitors to B.C. since domestic visitors were excluded, as well as international visitors who crossed Canada Customs outside the province but still visited B.C.

Some visitors may have also cleared customs in the province and continued on to other parts of Canada.

Editorial Policies Report an Error