VANCOUVER — Destination Canada’s (DC) latest Tourism Snapshot indicates continued tourism growth through January 2019, with arrivals for the month reaching a new record high of 919,670, representing year-over-year growth of 3.8 per cent.

January marked a strong start for 2019, with new peak monthly arrivals from China, France, Mexico and Australia. Arrivals from Australia increased for a fourth consecutive month (up 1.5 per cent) to overtake the U.K. as Destination Canada’s second largest long-haul market in January 2019.

The timing of Chinese New Year (11 days earlier than in 2018) is credited with bolstering arrivals from China, which were up 31.6 per cent over January 2018. Supported by an 80-per-cent increase in seats available on non-stop air service between China and Canada since 2015, January arrivals from China have more than doubled over the last five years.

France bucked the trend of dampened consumer confidence in Europe, with a 10.8-per-cent increase in overnight arrivals. However, DC’s other European markets saw declines, with arrivals from the U.K. and Germany falling 4.5 per cent and four per cent, respectively.

Arrivals from Mexico soared by 29.6 per cent in January 2019 to reach a record high of nearly 27,000 visitors — on par with January arrivals from the U.K., France and Australia.

Japan and South Korea saw the month’s steepest declines, down 20.2 per cent and 13.3 per cent, respectively.

The complete report is available here.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.