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Wanting Qu knocks it out of the ball park for Vancouver: city sees record number of tourists in 2014

The city saw the highest visitation numbers in its history with nearly 8.94 million over night stays.

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Vancouver Tourism promo video with Wanting Qu

Over the last year, Vancouver saw the highest number of visitors in its history with nearly 8.94 million over night stays, according to figures recently released by Tourism Vancouver.

The strongest growth in tourism this year came from China at + 25.8 per cent, India at + 21.1 per cent and Mexico at + 21.4 percent, and these numbers are also expected to grow next year.

The jump in visitation from 2013 to 2014 is credited to a number of key factors, including international conferences like TED and SIGGRAPH (which had 14,045 attendees), more international routes out of Vancouver International Airport and Vancouver's campaign with Chinese-born singer Wanting Qu.

Another aiding factor was that Vancouver's had a robust cruise ship season. According to Tourism Vancouver, between May and October, Port Metro Vancouver welcomed 812,095 passengers on 243 calls by 29 cruise ships. This year's cruise season generated close to $486 million.

It gets better. Tourism Vancouver and Meyers Norris Penny are expecting an overall 2.9 increase visitation for 2015 setting a new record.

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