Golden B.C. thriving with low Canadian dollar
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Just three hours west of Calgary, Golden, B.C. is experiencing tourists flocking to the town.
And it’s not all international visitors.
Joanne Sweeting, with Tourism Golden, told 660 NEWS that Canadians are embracing the staycation, but there are many more Americans coming.
“Alberta is one of our primary markets, Calgary being the biggest within Alberta,” Sweeting said. “We’re also seeing, though, a big increase from the U.S. The weak Canadian dollar is very much in our favour, and so we’re seeing a lot more U.S. residents crossing the border to vacation in B.C. and Canada.”
Tourism has been up at least 20 per cent in the town in the last year totaling $65 million.
Local hotels are booking into the summer.
“They are all saying that the forecast for this summer, they’re getting bookings much earlier,” Sweeting said. “Those bookings are actually booking longer stays. That was another trend that we saw last summer. Our summer 2015 numbers showed that the average length of stay went up by 16 per cent.”