B.C. tourism numbers falling below 2009 levels
By Contributor
New tourism numbers clearly show that the B.C. Liberals are wasting post-Olympic tourism opportunities, say New Democrats.
“Recent travel statistics tell a story – despite the 2010 Olympics, we now have fewer people visiting B.C. than in 2009,” said Spencer Chandra Herbert, the New Democrat tourism critic.
“There are lower levels of visitation than before the Olympics, which means fewer dollars spent in our communities, and fewer jobs. All this, despite a promise by the B.C. Liberals to double tourism in B.C. by 2015.”
While the number of international tourists visiting Canada increased by approximately 36,000, B.C. saw about 40,000 fewer people visiting the province in the second quarter, according to the Ministry’s own statistics.
In March 2010, Kevin Krueger, then Minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts, said, “we always said…the benefits of the Olympics would follow the Olympics and that we’d see far more economic growth post-Olympics than leading up to or during the Olympics.”
In February of this year, Premier Clark, in her leadership bid, committed to creating an industry-led tourism marketing partnership that would be supported by government. So far, this strategy has failed to materialize.
At the B.C. Tourism Industry Conference in Victoria recently, industry professionals hoped for the announcement of a model similar to that of Tourism B.C., which was blown up unilaterally just six months before the Olympics.
— Press release from the BC New Democrats
