Research

Research Program

We know the key to developing the tourism industry is having relevant data and insights about visitors. Northern BC Tourism is invested in a research program through the BC Regional Tourism Secretariat (BCRTS). The data is obtained from the Environics Analytics Visitor View Canada Program and allows us to see the volume of visitors to Northern BC, as well as the types of visitors who are coming to our region. It is possible to drill down to the community level through postal codes or geofencing.

See The Big Picture For Informed Decision-Making

We know the key to developing the tourism industry is having relevant data and insights about visitors.

The data is obtained from the Environics Analytics Visitor View Canada Program and allows us to see the volume of visitors to Northern BC, as well as the types of visitors who are coming to our region. It is possible to drill down to the community level through postal codes or geofencing.

Please find below an infographic that provides some insight into the type of data we have begun to collect to support the region and communities in their efforts to strengthen their local tourism sector.

How to use the Research

Learn how to use the research with these helpful guides

Learn more by watching our Research Workshop here. Find the workshop resources here to follow along:

Research Opportunities for Businesses

Want to know more about your existing customers? We can profile them using your postal codes. Want to know about visitors to your community or business? We can analyze them based on mobile visitation data.

The NBCTA Community Research Program provides Regional District Level and community level visitor counts benchmarked against the Northern BC region as a whole. NBCTA continues to invest in Environics Analytics data which can provide unprecedented visitor insights to our region.

Contact us for more information on how we can provide market profiles.

CONNECT

Regional Research

Click on the links below to view research for each of Northern BC's main tourism regions covering 2019 - 2021.

Northeast BC Prince George Northwest BC

Sector Reports

The below sector reports are meant to create a tool for Businesses, Communities and Government Organizations to understand different target groups and apply the insights to marketing strategy and recovery plans.

Adventure enthusiasts Cycling enthusiasts Culture & history enthusiasts Culinary enthusiasts hiking & backpacking enthusiasts

Visitor Spend Data

The ability to track and estimate spend on a Domestic and International level is important to gauge the tourism recovery process. The Visitor Intelligence Platform (VIP) from Destination Canada and Domo Inc. provides estimated spend on tourism in Canada from International, US States, and Domestic travellers.

Northern BC Visitor Spend INsights

Measuring Canadian Travel Patterns Weekly Reports

With this dashboard we can easily compare visitor travel patterns (to prior weeks in 2021 and year over year 2019, and 2020).

View 2022 Reports

View 2021 Reports

Hotel Benchmarking

What is the STR Report? For more than 30 years, research company STR collects rooms available, rooms sold, and room revenue from participating hotels which is then fed back (anonymously) to participants in reports to understand our own hotel’s performance. The British Columbia Hotel Association and the BC Regional Tourism Secretariat are working together to provide the STR report to our stakeholders to better understand our performance within our markets. Regional data is provided weekly to each RDMO and participating hotels receive their own reports.

Powered by the world’s largest hotel data sample, STR delivers confidential data on hotel occupancy, Average Daily Rate (ADR) and Revenue per Available Room (RevPar), for markets such as the tourism regions of BC.

Want to participate? See the Info Sheet or go straight to the sign-up form now. It’s FREE! Or watch a demo video of the FREE hotel benchmarking dashboard you could start accessing right away.

Monthly Visitor Highlights: Northern BC

As the tourism industry continues to navigate through the COVID-19 pandemic, the BCRTS will provide baseline research to support industry. This research and visitor analysis will help the tourism industry understand who is visiting our regions. This research also allows the industry to plan strategically to attract visitors

COVID-19 Tourism Impact Reports

Starting in March 2020, each month over 200 businesses throughout BC were polled on a number of topics related to how the pandemic is affecting their businesses; from eligibility and uptake of grant programs, to employment figures to personal challenges.

This BCRTS project was in partnership with the Tourism Industry Association of BC (TIABC) and the BC Hotel Association (BCHA) and BC Community Destination Marketing Organization (BCDMOA). When businesses tell us they are falling through the cracks, we reported it back and request changes such as expansion of the BC Small Business Grant, the creation of new grant programs for the hardest hit sectors and changes to eligibility criteria. It’s an essential way for us to gather and supply realtime information to the provincial government. The reports are available to the public and participation in surveys are vital to this work so we thank all stakeholders who have, and who will, contribute.

READ THE COVID-19 TOURISM IMPACT FINAL REPORT

VIEW THE COVID-19 TOURISM IMPACT REPORTS

Research Updates

NBCTA sends research updates via email on the first Friday of every month. Sign up to receive these updates in your inbox each month or read previous updates at the links to the right.

Signup for research updates!

Get in Touch

If you have any questions about our programs or work, please reach out.

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