By Business in Vancouver |
The country whose nationals’ visits to B.C. are increasing the most is by far India, according to Destination British Columbia data for the first eight months of the year.
The statistics show 90,099 Indian citizens entering B.C. during the first eight months of the year – up 33.8% from the same period a year ago.
The likely explanation for the spike is that Air Canada has been upping its number of non-stop daily flights between Vancouver and Delhi.
Air Canada launched non-stop Vancouver-Delhi flights on October 20, 2016, when the flights, which were the first-ever non-stop trips between Vancouver and India, were three times per week and only operated during the winter months. Former Premier Christy Clark said in speeches that she thought that the airline’s decision to launch the flights in part emanated from her urgings to Air Canada CEO Calin Rovenescu.
The airline then upped the frequency to be year-round instead of seasonal, with four round-trip flights per week in the summer and five round-trip flights per week during the winter.