cruise tourism economics
2023 saw 326 cruise ships arrive in Victoria, about a 30+% increase over the last pre-Covid cruise season of 2019. While the footprint of cruise tourism is large, a study by Stand.Earth shows cruise tourism economic benefits are overinflated, dwarfed by the benefits of non-cruise tourism (defined as stay-over and day-tripper tourism.)
The 2022 study, based on data from 2019, the last full cruise season in Victoria, shows that cruise tourism contributes less than 2% of total tourism spending in Greater Victoria. The study does not examine the high cost of unlimited cruise tourism: pollution, traffic, garbage, noise, damage to infrastructure, and threats to public health inflict demonstrable harm to the port’s high-density residential host neighbourhood of James Bay.
what are the numbers?
In 2019, the last full cruise season in Victoria pre-Covid:
Cruise tourism spending totaled CA$ 137.1 million while non-cruise tourism spent nearly CA$ 3 billion (CA$ 2.936,7 billion) or over 20 times more.
Cruise tourism in Victoria constituted nearly 12 percent of total number of visitors, but cruise-related tourists were responsible for less than 2 percent of tourism spending in the region.
Non-cruise tourism created nearly 31 times more jobs (37,411 vs. 1210) than cruise operations in Greater Victoria.
Non-cruise tourism in Greater Victoria is responsible for generating nearly 25 times more in government taxes than cruise tourism.
Where can i read the full report?
The report, by Stand.Earth, is called: MISSING THE BOAT: COMPARATIVE ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF CRUISE & NON-CRUISE TOURISM IN GREATER VICTORIA, B.C. download (PDF 2.2 MB)