Pubdate: Sun, 01 Feb 2015
Source: Province, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2015 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact: http://www2.canada.com/theprovince/letters.html
Website: http://www.theprovince.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476
Author: Nick Eagland
Page: 3

TOURISM BOOST AS LOONIE GOES TO POT

High season for American visitors as Canadian dollar plummets

A Vancouver entrepreneur and marijuana activist wants Americans to 
boost local tourism by coming north to get higher as the Canadian 
dollar gets lower.

"Hello, American would-be visitors, weed here is $3.50 to $8 US a 
gram," Marc Emery posted to Instagram on Thursday as Canada's dollar 
continued to plunge - dropping from about par to the U.S. dollar two 
years ago to 79 cents on Friday.

"I don't think it's occurring to (American tourists) that they can 
come up to Canada now, in the last six weeks, and have a holiday at a 
much greater discount than ever before," the self-styled "Prince of 
Pot" told the Sunday Province on Saturday.

Emery said there's a wider selection of pot at B.C. dispensaries for 
a fraction of what it costs in U.S. states where the drug has been 
legalized: Colorado, Oregon and Washington (Alaska will join the list 
on Feb. 24).

"I'm thinking we could draw a substantial amount of people from all 
these legal states because there simply isn't the benefit there of 
buying pot that they can get here."

Pot tourism isn't the only business that faces a boon from the 
widening exchange rate, according to local experts.

"A low dollar is good not only because it provides more value for 
people visiting here from other countries, but it also encourages 
more Canadians to vacation at home," said Stephen Pearce of Tourism Vancouver.

He said "2014 was a very strong year" for tourism, with overnight 
visits to Vancouver hitting a new (projected) high of 8.97 million.

That tops the previous high of 8.91 million overnight visits in 2007.

And he said Vancouver is on track to top nine million overnight 
visits this year, with the number projected to rise to 9.2 million, 
especially if the dollar stays low.

Visitors are up across the board, including from other parts of 
Canada, as well as from the U.S., Asia, Mexico and Europe, thanks to 
economic strength globally and consumer confidence, Pearce said.

The only dark spot is Alberta, a "strong market" for Vancouver, where 
a downturn because of tanking oil prices could curtail the number of visitors.

But overall, "there is a lot of pent-up tourism demand because of the 
Olympics," Pearce said.

The dollar, which has been sliding downward all year, may have helped 
resort towns such as Whistler to become more attractive to Americans 
and others.

The number of "room visits" shot up 14 per cent in the year to July 
2014, said Louise Walker of Tourism Whistler.

And expected occupancy of hotels for the week of the U.S. President's 
Day holiday in mid-February is running at 90 per cent, she said. 
That's up 13 per cent for the same period last year.

"The exchange rate will provide a real boost," she said.

American traffic had been slowing ever since the Canadian dollar got 
stronger back in 2002, she said, and the biggest decline happened in 
2008-09 as the global economic crisis hit the U.S.

And while the sinking loonie may be keeping Canadians from flying 
south, Sunquest spokeswoman Kerry Sharpe said deals can be had at the 
moment because the company bought up its vacation packages before the 
dollar drop and hasn't yet raised its prices.

- - with files from Susan Lazaruk 
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom