Despite three fewer ships arriving in Victoria this year compared with 2022, cruise visitor records were once again broken and the local economy benefitted.
Cruise season, running April to October, saw 26-per-cent more cruise visitors due to higher ship occupancy – that translates to 970,000 cruise visitors.
“We definitely found it busier than last year. We had a lot more customers and our sales were a lot higher,” said Chantal Chau, retail operations manager of Murchie’s Fine Tea & Coffee, an establishment that has been in Victoria since 1894.
“Because Murchie’s as a brand itself is quite well known in the tourist community and I believe most cruise ships actually do recommend people stop in … in that sense, it is quite essential to us,” she added.
Alexya Skrlac, operational manager at Victoria’s Ice Cream Shoppe on Government Street also found it busier this year compared to last year, but did notice some other changes.
“It was definitely a much busier year. I did notice people were more cautious with their money,” she said. “Not saying it wasn’t a good year … but we weren’t selling [per customer] what we would normally sell.”
Skrlac also found that cruise ship passengers were coming in at later times than in previous years, partly due to ships slowing down in Strait of Juan de Fuca for southern resident killer whales and ships offering shorter times off the boat.
READ MORE: Global emissions push, whale-saving efforts shorten Victoria cruise stays
“The cruise ships were coming in a lot later at night,” she added. “Not a lot of day cruises, which did affect [our numbers]. Normally they’d come in at five p.m. but they were coming in at 8:30/9 p.m. … we did stay open til 11 and our last hour was probably the busiest it would be for the whole day. Not a lot of other shops were open (at that time).”
A 2019 Economic Impact Study found the Victoria Cruise Terminal at the Breakwater District the busiest cruise ship port in all of Canada, generating approximately $143.5 million into Victoria’s economy. Each passenger spends an average of $86 in Victoria, contributing to approximately $23.7 million on tours and local transportation, $14.6 million on retail goods and $6.7 million on food and beverages.
Lindsay Gaunt, GVHA’s director of cruise development said that strong demand for cruising to Alaska makes Victoria a popular port of choice.
Jonathan Brenneman, a pedicab driver in Victoria, said cruise ship passengers typically liked to go to the Inner Harbour, the Empress, the Royal Gardens, Beacon Hill Park and Chinatown. But there were some other what he found surprising requests.
“More occasionally they wanted to hear ghost stories and visit haunted houses. You had Americans with really random requests like ‘I hear you have black squirrels, take me to the black squirrels!’ And then, of course, there is a small subset of the population who, for some reason, feel like any trip to Canada must contain an obligatory pilgrimage to Tim Hortons,” he said.
The 2023 cruise season wraps up on Oct. 29.
