Image Credit: ADOBE STOCK
May 30, 2022 - 7:00 AM
Even with the vast majority of COVID restrictions now lifted, tourism in the Thompson and Okanagan regions is still lagging behind pre-pandemic numbers.
A quarterly report from the Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association shows that visitor numbers in the region were down nine per cent compared to the first quarter of 2019.
In the first quarter of 2022, the region saw 478,900 domestic visitors which was up by 38 percent from 2021, but still less than the 526,300 visitors that came to the region between January and March of 2019.
Tourism took the worst hit in January when the number of visitors that came to the Thompson Okanagan was 22 per cent below pre-pandemic levels. By March, tourism numbers had increased and were just slightly above pre-pandemic numbers.
The statistics also show that visits to the region from Albertans increased during the pandemic.
In 2019 Alberta made up 18 per cent of tourists in the region, but in 2020 that number jumped to 27 per cent and 20 per cent in 2021.
The number of Albertans visiting the southern Interior this year remains the same as pre-pandemic levels.
While the number of tourists heading to the area has decreased since the pandemic, those that do come are staying longer.
In 2019 a tourist would stay an average of 3.6 nights in the region. That number in 2022 increased to 4.3.
For hoteliers and those offering accommodation that equals an extra 161,700 nightly bookings this year.
While Vancouverites have traditionally represented the largest number of visitors by city, this year for the first time, Surrey ranked in the first position in this category.
The majority of cities on the list are from the Lower Mainland, but in 2022 Prince George, which had previously come tenth in 2019 and had since not been on the list, came in sixth place.
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