PAUL NURSEY
VICTORIA – Take a walk around downtown Victoria and you’ll notice the sidewalks are a little busier, restaurants are fuller, and the foot traffic in and out of stores is up from a week ago. The reason? The 2025 cruise season is officially underway.
Greater Victoria welcomed 316 cruise ships with 970,000 passengers in 2024. This year, 320 cruise ships are expected to bring more than one million people to Victoria. That’s great news for the restaurants, retailers and other businesses that rely on this vital component of our visitor economy to support their business and their employees.
Each year, cruise passengers and crew spend more than $100 million in Greater Victoria, with passengers spending about $100 and crew members around $140 per visit. While here, they spend on food, clothes and accommodations, transportation, daily necessities and souvenirs.
Collectively, cruise lines spend another $124 million here on transportation, storage, travel agent commissions, machinery, equipment, and other supplies needed for their vessels, passengers and crew. The cruise industry also supports local vendors through programs like the Market on the Pier, which returned to The Breakwater District at Ogden Point on April 4, featuring up to 40 local vendors, giving visitors a taste of what Victoria has to offer.
From April to October, the cruise industry is a significant contributor to the regional economy, which includes being responsible for 1,390 direct and indirect jobs in Greater Victoria. In collaboration with the community-based, not-for-profit Greater Victoria Harbour Authority, which owns and operates the deep-water berths at Ogden Point, the cruise industry also continues to demonstrate a commitment to environmental responsibility. The federal government recently announced a $22.5-million grant to help bring renewable shore power to Victoria’s cruise ship terminal, which will catalyze electrification of the terminal, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions across the industry.
While cruise tourism doesn’t directly contribute to overnight stays, it does provide a large volume of visitors with a quick experience in Victoria, that we hope encourages them to return for a longer visit. Investing in this segment of the visitor economy makes our product better, as there are broad benefits to this type of business.
With cruise ships once again animating the Victoria shoreline, it’s a good time to remind ourselves of the important role the cruise industry plays in our visitor economy and how each ship continues to have a positive impact on our region long after they’ve sailed away.
Paul Nursey is the President and CEO of Destination Greater Victoria
