Tourism in Vancouver up post Olympics

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VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – We saw a boost in tourism during and following the 2010 Games, but was it worth it?  It’s been exactly two years since we hosted the world and the folks at Tourism Vancouver say it was well worth it.

There was a four per cent increase in visitors in 2010 over 2009, even though the world’s economy was tanking. Walt Judas with Tourism Vancouver admits we were already on the map but we got more exposure and it finally proved we could host a big party.

“We have Davis Cup this weekend and we had the CONCACAF Olympic Women’s Qualifying tournament.  Those are healthy numbers of visitors and we built up a good reputation.”

Judas predicts we’ll feel the positive effects of the Games for a while.

“The Olympics helped boost Canada to the world’s number one country brand, we had never attained that before.  We had a record number of city-wide conventions in 2011.  We booked 29 when normally it’s 19 or 20.”

He says things like the Olympic Village fiasco and the death of the Georgian luger never hurt our image.  

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