The future is looking brighter for Victoria鈥檚 tourism industry, a welcome improvement as the city struggles back from the economic downturn. 鈥淔or the first time probably in the last five years, we are not just cautiously optimistic, we are flat-out optimistic for the summer,鈥� Rob Gialloreto, Tourism Victoria president and chief executive, said this week.
Gialloreto predicts the year will show a 1.5 per cent increase in hotel occupancy, compared to last year. The increase might even be higher.
Numbers are already looking good, before the summer even begins.
Statistics from Frank Bourree of Chemistry Consulting suggest that hotel occupancy in April was 66.68 per cent, up 3.36 percentage points from the same month last year. The year-to-date figure was 54.47 per cent, up 0.6 percentage points.
Last week鈥檚 collapse of the Skagit River bridge in Washington state has been a blow for travellers, but Gialloreto still expects that tourism from south of the border will increase.
鈥淚t certainly won鈥檛 be a positive, but I don鈥檛 think it will have enough of a negative impact to change my prediction,鈥� Gialloreto said of the bridge collapse.
The bright lights include the Royal sa国际传媒 Museum鈥檚 new exhibit, Race to the End of the Earth, which tells the story of the race to reach the South Pole, just over 100 years ago. Museum officials are optimistic it will draw as many as 166,000 people, the number who saw last year鈥檚 dinosaur show.
A block away down Belleville Street, the new Robert Bateman gallery in the Steamship Terminal opened to a crowd that topped 3,000. With a new restaurant to open in the fall, the terminal building will become an attraction again, after years of renovation.
In coming years, David Foster Way from Ogden Point to Rock Bay will become a signature piece tying together the revitalized Inner Harbour.
The city is hoping to put more muscle into attracting tourists, including through a new study on how to get the most out of the conference centre, which increased its number of delegate-days by 16 per cent in April over last year. The research project will take several months.
Attracting tourists is going to be harder than it was in the past. Gone are the days when the slogan 鈥淔ollow the birds to Victoria鈥� was enough to promote the city.
The demographics of the tourists are changing.
Bourree鈥檚 figures suggest that between 2006 and 2012, the number of people entering or returning to sa国际传媒 by plane in Victoria or Sidney rose by 69 per cent. However, in 2006, 41 per cent of those travellers were Americans, three per cent were from other countries and 56 per cent were from sa国际传媒.
In 2012, the proportion of Americans dropped to 24 per cent, other countries stayed the same and Canadians accounted for 72 per cent of the total.
That suggests Canadians are hearing Victoria鈥檚 message far more than Americans are. In many parts of the world, newly affluent travellers from China are the latest target market. Victoria鈥檚 location and ties to China could make us a preferred destination.
At the same time, sa国际传媒 Ferries usage continues to drop. Passengers in April totalled 389,555, a drop of 10 per cent over last April, according to Bourree. The problem of what to do about those numbers is not going away soon. Ferries, government and travellers continue to debate the likely fixes, but nothing has worked.
As the economy moves slowly toward recovery, the number of potential tourists will keep growing. Victoria can find many reasons to attract them here. Both the city and the industry see the possibilities and are reaching for them.
