The B.C. spring tourism numbers are in and they show the highest growth on record.

The number of international visitors to British Columbia went over the million mark for the first few months of 2016 according to the latest statistics. From January to April, 172,637 visitors came to our province resulting in an 18.2 per cent increase over the same period last year.

Photo Credit: BC Gov

“April also experienced exceptional growth as 328,006 visitors travelled to British Columbia. This is a 21 per cent increase over April of 2015 (271,136 visitors same month last year). This is the highest number of visitors to B.C. on record for all the months of April over the last 10 years,” a news release from the province said.

Some of the key markets in April included:

Germany up 33.4%

China up 32.9%

South Korea up 31.9%

Mexico up 28%

Australia up 26.4%

U.S. up 22.1%

Japan up 9.3%

India up 6.8%

The United Kingdom up 0.7%

The province saw strong growth in visitors from China, South Korea and Mexico partly due to increased air access/additional flights to Vancouver from these countries.