B.C.’s Billion-Dollar Cruise Industry Set To Grow

Canada Place

B.C.’s cruise industry brought 1.8 million visitors and generated $1.6 billion in economic activity in 2012.

With Disney’s return to Vancouver and increased capacity from other carriers, the Port of Vancouver expects to see a 23 per cent increase in passenger visits in 2013.
 
Cruise passenger visits generated $790 million in direct spending and $84 million in business and income taxes in 2012. Alaska-bound visitors spent an average $300 per person per visit in Vancouver and $66 in other B.C. ports, with each cruise call generating an estimated $2 million in economic activity in Vancouver.
 
The Port of Vancouver expects an estimated 820,000 visitors and 225 ships visits in 2013.
 
Disney Cruise Line’s return to Vancouver for a second season in 2013, following a one-year interlude in Seattle, will bring 70,000 more visitors to B.C. In a statement to BCBusiness, Disney Cruise Lines cited positive feedback from customers and the chance to explore new markets as reasons for moving back to Vancouver.
 
Norwegian Cruise Line will add nine sailings this season bringing in another 45,000 passengers, while Holland America will increase its capacity from approximately 220,00 to 270,000.

More passengers means a greater demand for pre- and post-trip hotels and travel. In December, Delta Airlines announced that it would launch daily non-stop service between Vancouver and New York in May, which, “will assist with capacity requirements for an expected boost in cruise tourism,” media officials for YVR said.

B.C.’s smaller cruise ports—Victoria, Nanaimo and Prince Rupert—saw more than half a million visitors in 2012.