TRAVEL TRENDS
Destination Vancouver
It used to be the case that, when it came to a surge in passenger traffic at Vancouver International Airport, it was the same as any other North American hub, concentrating around two holidays: Christmas and Thanksgiving. But now there’s a third. “As with Thanksgiving and Christmas, we definitely see a boost right around Chinese New Year,” said Carl Jones, YVR’s director of air service development. “The dates, of course, can fluctuate a bit from year to year, but whether we have a very strong January or February, it really does depend on (Chinese New Year). It’s a spike every year.”
It is hard to calculate the direct impact of this holiday on the airport, given that the date — based on the lunar calendar — changes every year. But YVR passenger data from two years with the same Lunar New Year date, 1995 and 2014, shows that traffic for January and February more than doubled (up 117 per cent and 103 per cent, respectively) during those two decades.
YVR’s overall passenger traffic growth is up 61 per cent over the past 20 years.
Jessica Chen, founder of Richmond-based upscale vacation rental agency Luxy Easy and a nine-year travel industry veteran, said Chinese New Year usually sees a 15 to 20 per cent jump in inquiries and business for local travel companies.
She said the biggest increase is with incoming tourists, since Canadian families that celebrate the Lunar New Year holiday tend to be constrained by the breaks in the local school system, and few school- children take time off to travel in late January or early February.
That is in stark contrast with places like China and Taiwan, where the Lunar New Year is one of the year’s longest public holidays and a prime time for travel.
“With these travellers, we are seeing more and more foregoing traditional, travel-home-to-family trips in favour of travelling with family to destinations abroad — like North America and Europe,” said Chen. “For them, it’s the next logical step. They started by going out to dine instead of the traditional at-home meal, and now they are looking to get out of the ordinary for the duration of the holidays.”
She added that many of these travellers are now looking at Vancouver as a destination: “Today, the Chinese tourist is very sophisticated. Many have seen places like New York, L.A., London and Paris multiple times. They want something different, and Vancouver and its surrounding regions still have the potential to attract even more visitors.”
Jones added that another reason for the recent spikes in passenger traffic is the availability of flights. YVR has direct flights to 11 Chinese cities and hosts six China-based carriers. Air Canada has also been aggressively adding routes linking Vancouver with cities with large Asian communities.
“It predominately reflects the size and nature of the Chinese community here in Vancouver,” Jones said of the surge around Chinese New Year. “But the new flights definitely put Vancouver at an advantage. When you take into account that we have more flights and carriers from the Greater China region than the likes of Los Angeles, San Francisco and other competing North American airports, we have much greater access to the fast-growing markets of China and Asia.”