The tourism industry in British Columbia is currently ‘booming’ as revealed by the provincial government data that showed increased in the number of visits from many nations.
The tourist arrivals had increased by over 9% in the month of January.
The biggest boost had come from China and the tourism visits from this Asian country had risen to more than 56%. This was followed by an increase in tourists from Australia that saw a rise of 37%, Mexico that also witnessed 37% and the United Kingdom that was a spectator to an increase of about 22%.
A press release of the government said that the largest influences on the number of tourists is the presence of direct flights.
The number of non-stop flights between airports in Taipei, Hong Kong, mainland China and Vancouver has been increasing steadily over the last year. This trend is likely to continue for quite some time. In January, there were 84 direct flights per week and this is expected to increase to about 104 by the month of July.
According to the press release, both Australia as well as China had seen increases in airline capacity to British Columbia.
It added that the new flights were scheduled to be a part of the province that has been eliminating the international jet fuel tax that has minimized costs for the airlines. The British Columbia government states that every new flight creates as much as 150-200 new jobs at the Vancouver International Airport.
