The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority (VFPA) is readying for what it expects to be the biggest cruise season in Vancouver's history.
The current schedule is for cruise ships to visit Vancouver's Canada Place cruise terminal 329 times between March 11 and Oct. 29, 2024.
The authority said that this translates into an estimate of a record 1.27 million passengers who would travel through Canada Place in 2024, about 1.6 per cent more than last year's record of 1.25 million passengers.
Before 2023, the previous annual record for cruise passengers in Vancouver was 1.1 million, set in 2019, according to the VFPA.
The Disney Wonder is scheduled to be the first ship to arrive in Vancouver, on March 11, when it is set to pick up passengers heading for San Diego. It is then scheduled to return to Vancouver in May to start its weekly itinerary on the Vancouver-to-Alaska route.
Mandy Chan, the VFPA's manager of cruise services, said in a statement that she expects the record number of passengers to "solidify Vancouver as a premier homeport" on the Alaskan cruise run.
"Cruise is an important part of Vancouver's vibrant tourism sector that supports countless local hospitality and tourism businesses and jobs," she said. "We look forward to working alongside our cruise line and industry partners to ensure another successful season."
The Vancouver cruise industry was halted in 2020 and 2021. It then bounced back solidly in 2022.
Vancouver this year is set to welcome the following cruise lines: Celebrity Cruises, Crystael Cruises, Cunard, Disney Cruise, Explora Journeys, Hapag-Lloyd Cruises, Holland America, Hurtigruten, Norwegian Cruise, NYK Cruises, Oceania Cruises, Peace Boat, Ponant, Princess, Regent Seven Seas, Royal Caribbean, Seabourn, Silversea Cruises, Victoria Cruises, and Viking Ocean Cruises, according to the VFPA.
