Prince George, B.C. –  The first month   of  2017  saw  increases in the numbers of   some international travellers  arriving in B.C..

Surprisingly,  with all the  publicity about disgruntled Americans in the wake of the Trump election,  overnight stays in B.C.  by  Americans were  down  slightly  ( 0.2%) in January,  while  the number of  and same day visitors increased by  just  0.6% .

The major  increases in arrivals  in B.C.  came from  Mexico which  was  up 37.4%,  China  increased by  55.8%, Australia  up  by  36.7%, there was a 21.5% increase in  visitors arriving from the United Kingdom, a 19.1%  boost in the number of folks  coming  from South Korea,  and  17% more visitors from India.

Those increases are balanced off by  decreases  in visitors from a number of other countries compared to January of 2016.

• Germany  down 18.8%
• Netherlands   down 22.3%
• Austria down 30.%
• Switzerland down 11%
• France  down  22.9%
• Italy down  10%

Overall, the  latest numbers from  Statistics Canada indicate there was a 9.2% increase in  all arrivals in January  over the same month  a year ago.  That translates to  23,427 more visitors arriving in B.C.