The tourism industry is recognized as one of the four economic pillars in British Columbia. It is a multi-billion-dollar industry that has a significant economic impact through visitor spending on goods and services; wages and benefits paid to employees; business investment; job creation; taxes paid to various levels of government; and other economic benefits. The tourism sector provides many societal benefits beyond the obvious economic income. Destinations that offer ancient forests and Indigenous tourism opportunities are increasing in demand. They are especially attractive to international tourists where ancient forests no longer exist.
Typically, however, First Nations communities have been unable to adequately access the benefits of tourism through lack of access to capital and training. Where coastal forest communities have set up successful business is where capital is made available through opportunity funds derived from carbon projects and philanthropy, e.g., Coast Opportunity Fund.
Further resources:
The Value of Tourism
The value of tourism to jobs, business and the economy:
- Tourism employs about 46,400 people
- Over 19,690 tourism businesses operate in British Columbia
- In 2020, during the pandemic, the tourism industry generated $7.1 billion in revenue
- The tourism industry contributed nearly $731 million in provincial taxes in 2020
- Tourism generated a direct contribution to B.C.’s gross domestic product of $2.4 billion in 2020 (2012 constant dollars), slightly above Forestry & Logging ($1.7 billion).
Tourism also has value for communities across the province:
- Most tourism businesses are locally owned small and medium enterprises that directly contribute to the local community economy
- Nearly half the tourism businesses (42%) are located outside the Vancouver-Lower Mainland region. Vancouver Island (16%) and Thompson-Okanagan (13%) have the largest number of businesses outside the Lower Mainland
- While the largest share of jobs (64%) are in the Vancouver-Lower Mainland region, the fastest growth over the last decade has been in the Cariboo Chilcotin Coast (up 50%) and Vancouver, Coast & Mountains (up 19%).