Vancouver's 2022 cruise ship season ends with 815,000 passengers

Vancouver cruise ship season in 2022 comes to an end with 815,000 passengers

Disney Wonder at the Canada Place cruise ship terminal in downtown Vancouver. (Macklin Holloway/Shutterstock)

The 2022 cruise ship season in Vancouver, the first in two years following the onset of the pandemic, is coming to a close this week.

The final cruise ship at the Canada Place terminal will be the Crown Princess, which will arrive Wednesday at 7 am and depart at 4:30 pm on the same day.

The total count of cruise ship passengers in 2022 is expected to reach about 815,000 — down from the 1.1 million recorded in pre-pandemic 2019. Going into the season early this year, Vancouver Fraser Port Authority was unable to provide an accurate estimate on the number of cruise passengers due to the fluid nature of the pandemic’s lingering impact and health safety restrictions.

According to the port, occupancy levels on the ships were initially low at below 50% at the start of the season, but it gradually increased as the season progressed to a peak of 76% over the summer. The average occupancy rate for 2022 was about 70%.

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The cruise season officially began on April 10 with the arrival of Holland America Line’s Koningsdam, the first cruise ship in Vancouver since late 2019. The first cruise ship of the season was originally scheduled to be the Caribbean Princess, but it cancelled its stop in Vancouver for the official reason of requiring extra time in dry dock. At the time, there were also US Centre for Disease Control reports of a high number of coronavirus cases onboard.

While the overall passenger count in 2022 was lower, the Port of Vancouver saw an all-time record of cruise ship visits in 2022 — a 6% increase compared to 2019.

It was so busy at Canada Place this summer that most days between early May and late September saw multiple ship visits at the terminal, with thousands of passengers disembarking and embarking.

As a further case in point, all berths at Canada Place were fully occupied by cruise ships on at least one occasion on a weekend in the middle of June. This necessitated the Viking Orion, the fourth ship to call, to anchor in the middle of Vancouver harbour and shuttle cruise passengers back and forth between the ship and Canada Place. Such a practice is common at other major cruise ship ports elsewhere in the world, but rarely performed in Vancouver.

“It’s been fantastic to see cruise ships and passengers back in town after the two-year pause through the height of the pandemic,” said Robin Silvester, president and CEO of the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, in a statement. “This year’s cruise season was an impressive comeback story for a critical catalyst for the local tourism industry and it provided a much-needed boost for many regional tourism and hospitality businesses.”

More cruise ships visiting Vancouver have also reduced their emissions while berthed at Canada Place. The port states that 70% of the cruise ship visits used shore power, which is the practice of plugging into the electrical grid at the port instead of using auxiliary engines that burn fossil fuels.

All things considered following Canada’s prolonged ban on cruise ships, the uncertainty of coronavirus variant lockdowns early this year, and consumer confidence in returning to cruise ships, 2022 proved to be a remarkably strong rebound year.

The port is now forecasting 2023 will be an even bigger cruise ship season, potentially breaking all-time records, based on preliminary records. Currently, 334 cruise ship visits are scheduled for Canada Place in 2023, and if normal ship capacities return there could be a record 1.3 million cruise passengers.

The return of cruise ship passengers visiting Vancouver also provided local businesses with a significant boost.

“The return of cruise ships to Canada Place kicked off the rebuilding of Vancouver’s visitor economy,” said Royce Chwin, president and CEO of Destination Vancouver.

“When those ships were back in the harbour and visitors were streaming into the city once again, we knew the corner had been turned. And to have the number of ships calling at our port exceed the industry’s peak in 2019 is absolutely remarkable.”

Last week, Vancouver International Airport noted it is expecting to end 2022 with a relatively strong recovery of over 17 million passengers. This figure is expected to further increase to 22 million passengers in 2023 due in part to the continued rebound of cruise ship passenger volumes.

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