Seven years ago, more than 55,000 visitors dropped into the Chemainus Visitor Centre looking for information or suggestions to enhance their time spent in the community.
COVID-19’s arrival in 2020 put an end to a positive trend that had been growing for several years. That year, only 4,020 visits were recorded and the following year the number dropped to 2,860. The number of buses that showed up at Waterwheel Park in 2020 and 2021 totaled a mere 16. Typically, around 1,000 tourist bus visits are recorded by Visitor Centre Staff.
Melody Smythies, manager of the Chemainus + District Chamber of Commerce, the organization that operates the Visitor Centre, told a recent directors’ meeting that the visitor numbers have yet to return to their previous lofty heights.
“There were 17,779 visitors in 2024 and that was actually down from 18,530 in 2023,” Smythies told the board.
The number of tour buses coming to Chemainus continues to be significantly lower than was the case prior to COVID. In 2024 320 buses arrived in town and in 2023 there were 300. That is way below the pre-COVID years: 902 in 2016, 1,162 in 2017, 1,044 in 2018 and 883 in 2019.
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