If you add up all of the income everyone in B.C. has earned in the year, or conversely all that was spent over the same period of time, at the most basic level you have the Gross Domestic Product, or GDP, which is often referred to in comparison to another year or another quarter.
From a total GDP income perspective, British Columbia’s economy is fairly diverse. Manufacturing accounts for 15 per cent and no real surprise is the 23 per cent that makes up financial and real estate services. A dozen other sectors comprise the remainder, but no one sector dominates.
Tourism accounts for 4 per cent of that pie with a direct contribution to the B.C. GDP of $7.1 billion and growing recently by 4.5 per cent, significantly outpacing other sectors.
When British Columbians take a staycation and travel within B.C. it is a stimulus to our economy, but when international visitors enter B.C. to experience all that we have to offer they bring with them new money, which makes the pie bigger.
And last year international overnight entries into B.C. grew at a healthy 8 per cent and we are on track to exceed those numbers this year.
There are a number of reasons that contribute to this growth rate. The increased air access and capacity certainly play a role, especially in the case of the U.K. growing at 32 per cent, while Australia is increasing at 28 per cent.
Year-to-date growth in American visits is over 10 per cent and that is really significant because we are starting out with large numbers to begin with. While one would imagine that the favourable currency exchange is an important consideration in a decision to visit B.C., surveys suggest that fewer than one-in-five Americans is even aware that there is a currency difference. For some travellers, arrival in Canada must be an even greater pleasure than we imagine.
With Vancouver being Canada’s Pacific gateway and the Sea to Sky pulling visitors and locals alike into the mountains and the interior, forecasts suggest a sixth record summer in a row. Strong employment numbers and rising incomes are good signs even while they come with growing pains. Capacity of the landscape to absorb the impacts of visitors does create issues. Hundreds and hundreds of cars parked along the Duffy Lake Road and literally thousands of people walking on the Joffre Lakes Trail in a day highlight the issue.
Under the influence of today’s social media, experiences can go viral. As a result, those experiences can change forever. More than once I have received advice from an outdoor professional who suggested that they “hoped I wouldn’t Instagram” a location or an idea.
In Garibaldi Park, surging park use has necessitated the implementation of an overnight camping permit reservation system. It is likely that the reservation requirements will need to be expanded to more of the park in coming seasons in a bid to limit people’s impact on natural systems and provide the incredible wilderness experience people expect.
While a $25-million budget has been announced to build 1,000 forestry campsites and 900 provincial park sites in high demand areas such as the Sea to Sky, the law of supply and demand suggests that tourism GDP growth will have more than a financial impact. Contact Sturdy at jordan.sturdy.mla@leg.bc.ca or 604-922-1153.
