Port authority, businesses reflect on record cruise ship season in Vancouver

It’s time to kiss goodnight to cruise ship season in Vancouver.

And what a season it’s been—with a record 1.32 million passengers coming through.

“When you compare that to 2023, which was previously a record-breaking cruise season, we actually surpassed our passenger levels for 2024 by 80,000 cruise passengers,” Chance McKee with the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority told CTV News at Canada Place on Monday.

That success story has translated into benefits for some businesses, including MAKE Vancouver’s Gastown location.

“It has been an excellent season,” the gift store’s manager John Ong said Monday. “I found this year tourism started early with the earlier cruise ships and they’re still going on. Like, last week was quite busy with the few ships that are still coming and going.”

This bounce back is a pleasant development after the cruise ship industry and related sectors went through so much during the pandemic.

"Tourists are such fun people, and we have a fun store, so we do have fun with them—they enjoy coming,” said Ong. “We're always told it's their favourite place to go, and a lot of that is because we love being here."

The port authority released a study earlier this year finding that passengers, crew and cruise lines spend a combined $1.1 billion locally each year.

This record setting season comes to an end Tuesday with the departure of Norwegian Jewel, with the port authority expecting to see similar numbers of visitors again next season.