The Port of Vancouver, the largest port in Canada, is already breaking past records and the year isn’t even over.
On October 1, 2024, the port shared a mid-year update on cruise tourism, reporting that 554,546 passengers passed through the Canada Place cruise terminal between March 1 and June 30, 2024.
This marks a positive 13% increase over the record of 490,119 cruise guests that visited the port during the same time period in 2023.
Port officials also announced that its second busiest day of all time occurred on Monday, April 29, when just under 20,000 passengers passed through the terminal in one day.
“Cruise continues to thrive in Vancouver—and this is testament to the hard work and dedication of everyone involved in the local industry as much as it is to the region’s natural beauty,” said Peter Xotta, President and CEO of the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority.
It’s worth noting that much of this growth can likely be attributed to this year’s Alaska cruise season – which usually runs from late April to early October, and is especially busy during the peak summer months.
Alaska sailings were in particularly high demand for 2024. As one of the top homeports and ports of call for these voyages, Vancouver was gearing up for a record breaking summer well in advance – and celebrated the positive impact on the local economy.
“Being a homeport destination where cruise lines base their ships for the Alaska season means benefits are spread throughout the region, from local food and beverage suppliers to ship fuel and repair providers to downtown restaurants and hotels,” added Xotta.
The cruise terminal will have welcomed a total of 329 cruise ships between March 11 and October 29, 2024, when the Alaska season officially concludes.
Coming from across all the ships, an estimated 1.27 million cruisers were expected to step onto Canadian soil before the end of October, which is a 2% increase from 2023’s record numbers.
While it’s still too early to unveil the final numbers for the full duration of the Alaska season, the mid-year update leaves little doubt that the port will not only surpass its previous records for the Alaska season, but for the year as a whole.
Vancouver Improves Cruise Terminal Efficiency
As the biggest port in Canada, the British Columbia port has made some changes to improve the experience in the Canada Place Cruise Terminal.
Most notably, the port partnered with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in June 2024 to implement facial biometric technology to help expedite the embarkation process.
While similar automated systems have begun to roll out in airports around the world, it’s the first time that biometric technology has been used in Canada’s cruise tourism.
Using facial recognition and artificial intelligence, passengers’ identities can be checked and verified in a matter of the seconds – which is much faster than the time it takes port staff to manually verify individual travel documents by hand.
The system simply takes a photo of each passenger during the boarding process, which is then matched against the photo from their travel documents – allowing them to get to the fun much more conveniently and quickly. Similarly, after a cruise, debarkation can be much faster and smoother.
Read Also: Cruises From Vancouver: The Pros and Cons
Considering the port can accommodate up to four cruise ships at a time across three berths, thousands of passengers could be passing through Canada Place on any given day – making it extra important to expedite and improve the check-in and debarkation processes.
Plus, it’s only getting busier! In addition to experiencing the second busiest day in its history on April 29, the port also sailed through an additional five of its top ten busiest days between April and June.
Aside from being a top Alaska port, Vancouver is also a popular gateway to other exciting destinations, meaning it can stay busy all year.
Many cruise lines, including but not limited to Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, and Celebrity Cruises, offer Vancouver-based sailings to destinations like Hawaii, Tahiti and the South Pacific, the United States’ West Coast, the Panama Canal, the Mexican Riviera, and more.
