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sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ welcomed 595,795 foreign overnight visitors in June, according to new  of Statistics sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ data.

That is down 28.5 per cent from the same month in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic virtually ground international travel to a halt.

That decline in relation to months in 2019 has been holding steady. 

In May, the province's 439,677 foreign overnight visitor count was down 28.6 per cent from the same month in 2019. May's total was up 54.1 per cent from May 2022, while in June, the increase over last June was a comparatively low 48.8 per cent. 

Normalized travel by Mexicans was one reason for the softer June visitor data. 

, based on Destination BC figures. The country sent 17,288 overnight visitors to sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ in May – a staggering 34 per cent more visitors to sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½, compared with May 2019. 

The 17,000 Mexican overnight visitors that sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ saw in June, however, was down by 0.5 per cent, compared with the same month in 2019, Destination BC data show.

No country sent more overnight visitors to sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ in June than it did in June 2019, although India came close, with 23,429 visitors, a count that was down by only 0.1 per cent, compared with 2019. 

China remains the nation that has a visitor count to sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ that most lags 2019. There were 12,222 mainland Chinese visitors to sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ in June, down 66.4 per cent from the same month in 2019. China earlier ths month left sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ off a list of countries approved for group tours, indicating that it may be a slow road to full recovery in overnight visitors from that country.

The Chinese government , as well as that sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ has criticized alleged interference by China in Canadian elections.

The silver lining is that the 12,222 mainland Chinese visitors to sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ via sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ ports in June was 241.7 per cent more than in June 2022 – the biggest percentage gain, compared with last year, among all nations.

The  pre-pandemic.

 but whether concrete action will result is anyone's guess.

The U.S. remains the nation that sends the most overnight visitors to sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ There were 390,202 Americans who stayed overnight in sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ after entering the country through a sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ border crossing in June. That is down 27.5 per cent from the same month in 2019 but up 42.1 per cent from June 2022.