Big mobs of Aussies enjoying B.C.
As expats celebrate Australia Day, tourism celebrates spike in arrivals
Just in time for Australia Day come tourism numbers showing that visitors from Down Under spiked in the first 11 months of 2016.
The statistics from B.C.’s tourism ministry showed more than 5.1 million international visitors entered the province during those months, a 12.2-per-cent increase over the same period in 2015.
Within those stats, the Aussie figures stand out. In November 2016, 9,010 Australians entered B.C., 59.5 per cent more than the previous November. In the first 11 months of 2016, a total of 197,246 Australians visited, up 19.7 per cent from the year before.
About two-thirds of Australian visitors to Canada head to B.C., the figures reveal.
One cause of last year’s spike could be the 2015 changes in fed- eral rules for Australians under 30 seeking working holiday visas. The rules allow new applicants only one such visa in their lifetimes.
“Maybe a lot of Aussies are trying to take advantage of that,” said Adam Rosenberg, a 27-yearold Aussie who has been living in Whistler since November 2015.
Australian visitors who don’t plan to work here don’t need a visa.
The tourism ministry pointed to improved air access — citing a new direct Air Canada flight from Brisbane to Vancouver that launched in June 2016 — as one driver of the year-over-year jump.
Rosenberg was at work Wednesday, stocking the bar at Whistler’s Longhorn Pub. Because of the time difference, Australia’s Jan. 26 national holiday was already underway back home, and the Longhorn was streaming a Melbourne radio station that plays the country’s top 100 songs for the holiday. On Thursday, the Longhorn will feature a patio concert by Australian electronic-music duo Peking Duk.
Most Australians in Whistler planned to take Thursday off. They included restaurant host Madeleine Paslis from Sydney, who was looking forward to her second Australia Day in the mountain resort.
“It all started the night before, because Peking Duk was play- ing then as well,” Paslis said. The next morning, she said, “we all went up the mountain, we were super hungover but you just keep the bender going, I suppose.”
In Vancouver, Aussie-themed restaurant Moose’s Down Under was hosting an Aussie Day party Wednesday night, with the 100 top hits streaming there as well.
Owner Corina Aquino said Australia’s boom-and-bust mining economy could account for a spike in tourists.
“People are taking a break,” said Aquino, who moved from Perth to Vancouver 26 years ago.
“They’ve made some money and now they’re travelling.”