Tourism Economy (1910 – 1940)

by

“In the 1910s and 1920s new tourist organizations would emerge to consolidate a more cooperative approach to tourism promotion.  The most important of these organizations. the Pacific Northwest Travel Association (BC, Washington, and Oregon), would be led by Victoria tourism promoter Herbert Cuthbert.”

Unfortunately, efforts to promote tourism were hampered when World War I broke out in 1914.  Over the next four years the tourism economy would suffer.  However throughout the 1920s BC’s economy would thrive as demands for wood, copper and zinc skyrocketed, and international trade grew.

With a thriving economy, tourism also prospered: in 1928, over 370,000 tourists visited Victoria, spending over $3.5 million (Dawson, 2004).

Shortly thereafter, following a massive stock market crash in October of 1929, the Great Depression started.  “Every aspect of BC’s economy was affected.  The net value of production and exports fell by almost 60 percent.  Thousands of men from across Canada entered the province looking for work, raising tensions with unemployed residents.”  BC was one of the hardest hit provinces due to its heavy reliance on resource exports, which had dwindled to a negligible level.  Canada’s Western provinces were technically bankrupt by 1932.  “By 1933, 30 per cent of the labour force was out of work.  One in five Canadians became dependent upon government relief for survival.”

Despite the hard times, tourism was seen as an economic solution.  A newly renamed Greater Victoria Publicity Bureau touted a “100 for 1” multiplier effect of tourism spending, with visitor revenues accounting for around 13.5% of BC’s income in 1930.   From 1935 to 1940, the Provincial government implemented a number of strategies to create a more stable industry and increase visitors’ length of stay.

Again, these actions would be hampered by the December 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, which “had negative repercussions for tourism in the Pacific Rim… From 1939 to 1943, US visits to Vancouver dropped [over 40 percent]”.