As Calgary's tourism sector recovers, what's ahead for 2024?

Tourism Calgary is projecting millions of tourists will visit the city in 2024 — as pandemic recovery for the sector happened sooner than expected.

Jeff Hessel, senior vice-president of marketing at Tourism Calgary, said the number of visitors to Calgary increased last year compared with pre-pandemic levels.

Tourism Calgary's figures say an estimated 8.4 million people visited the city in 2023. In 2019, there were about 8.0 million.

And, Hessel said, visitors are spending more on their visits.

"A lot of that is due to a bit of higher pricing at this point in time — inflation. We've seen that come in there, but definitely  a much larger spend coming into Calgary this year," he said.

It's also fuelled somewhat by "revenge travel," and choosing more luxurious experiences, he said. "Revenge travel" is a term that refers to vacations taken after the loosening of COVID-19 restrictions.

Tourism Calgary had previously planned for a 2024 recovery.

Looking ahead, Tourism Calgary is projecting up to 8.7 million visitors in 2024, and another increase to visitor spending.

They're also projecting about $3.2 billion in tourism revenue for the local economy in 2024.

Hessel said high profile events in the city have raised Calgary's profile, and he also expects Calgary's booming population to fuel growth.

"We expect to see probably a lot of people with friends and family coming to visit their friends and family in Calgary," he said.

While most of Calgary's visitors are from Canada — about 80 per cent, Hessel said — international markets are going to be significant going forward, especially into 2025 and 2026.

However, inflation and reduced flights could curb growth. Throughout 2023, inflation caused prices for many goods, including groceries, to rise.

"The one thing that we're looking at and we're watching it very closely next year, obviously, is the economy and inflation and whether pricing is having an effect on people's decisions to take a trip," Hessel said.

Air Canada no longer flies out of several smaller airports in Western Canada, and has reduced service to larger cities on the Prairies. Out of Calgary, the airline no longer offers direct flights to Nanaimo, Cranbrook, Kamloops, Castlegar and Victoria in British Columbia; Regina and Saskatoon in Saskatchewan; and Lethbridge and Medicine Hat in Alberta. Air Canada flew those routes in 2019.

Visitors walk to the lower falls along the Johnston Canyon Trail. Alberta Minister of Tourism and Sport Joseph Schow said the province is working on building tourism zones outside of the main attractions. (Helen Pike/CBC)

Alberta Minister of Tourism and Sport Joseph Schow said it was disappointing to see Air Canada's decision to scale back flights in Western Canada.

"We'd love to see Air Canada thicken their routes and add routes, but they decided to pull back routes," he said.

Alberta, like Calgary, has seen recovery in the tourism sector, and is now back to pre-pandemic numbers ahead of projections, Schow said.

"It's great news for the tourism sector. It's great news for jobs and our economy. And that's really what this comes down to is tourism jobs in this province," he said.

The province is looking at growing tourism outside of what is commonly considered its main attractions: Banff, Jasper, Lake Louise, Calgary and Edmonton.

Those zones are Fort McMurray Wood Buffalo, Northern Rockies, Northeast Lakelands, David Thompson, Olds to Lacombe, Cochrane/Sundre/Rocky Mountain House, Canadian Badlands, Foothills, Lethbridge to Medicine Hat, and the Southern Rockies.

Joseph Schow is Alberta's minister of tourism and sport. He says the province has seen a recovery in the tourism sector after the pandemic. (Helen Pike/CBC)

"It's a great future for the province — the destination development and seeing people start new businesses that are thriving and continue to tell that rural Alberta story," Schow said.

He said while Alberta is back to pre-pandemic spending levels in the visitor economy, it still lags behind with international travel.

He said the province is working with airline partners, like WestJet, that are looking to expand routes and direct flights into Alberta.

Sol Zia, executive director of the Calgary Hotel Association, said they saw substantial growth in the number of hotel rooms booked for leisure in 2023, with 3.5 million overnight stays in Calgary, which is substantially higher than in 2019 and the years prior.

He thinks that pent-up demand will be hard to replicate in 2024.

"What we experienced with leisure travel into the area in 2023 will be difficult to repeat in 2024. So for 2024, we're actually projecting a relatively flat, very small change," he said.

However, corporate bookings are still lower than 2019 and prior levels.