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Vancouver’s port authority is anticipating even more growth in 2027 after a record-setting year for cruise ship tourism in the city, which the authority says injected more than $1 billion into the local economy.
A Friday release from the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority (VFPA) described the city’s cruise sector as an economic engine “that drives local tourism,” supporting businesses and jobs across the region.
As the last cruise ship of the year prepares to depart early Tuesday morning, about 1.4 million passenger visits will have been recorded through 358 ship calls between February and October, according to the release.
Chance McKee, senior trade development representative for the authority, says that’s roughly 20 per cent more passenger visits and ship calls than in 2025, and the authority projects another seven per cent rise in both next year.
It is also roughly 200,000 more passenger visits than in 2025, and the port authority says passengers spend an average of about $1,100 in Vancouver, according to a 2025 passenger survey.
“Cruise passengers are making Vancouver part of their journey, not simply the place where it begins or ends,” said Royce Chwin, president and CEO of Destination Vancouver.
He said that with about three-quarters of passengers spending time in Vancouver before or after their cruises, it’s a “significant boost” to the city’s economy, benefiting hotels, restaurants, attractions, shops and neighbourhoods.
The port authority said this year’s numbers broke the previous record set in 2024 of roughly 1.32 million passenger visits through 327 cruise ship calls in Vancouver.
Demand limits
However, the port’s shore-power capacity is being tested by demands of the industry.
In 2009, shore power was installed to allow vessels to plug into B.C.’s electricity grid instead of running diesel-powered auxiliary engines while docked, making Vancouver the third port in the world to offer the technology, according to the VFPA.
The infrastructure was expanded in 2015 to container ports in Vancouver, but currently only two cruise ships can plug into shore power simultaneously, while as many as three or four ships are often docked at the terminal, according to McKee.
McKee said the port will have five shore-power connection stations in 2027 after upgrading its infrastructure, keeping Vancouver competitive in the sector.
The VFPA says that since 2009, shore power has helped prevent more than 50,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions across its cruise and container operations, which it equates to removing about 11,750 gasoline-powered cars from the road for a year.
