Vancouver Closes Record Cruise Season and Expands Shore Power

The Port of Vancouver closed its 2026 cruise season with the arrival of the Norwegian Encore on October 12, the last vessel of a cycle that began on February 26 with the arrival of the Disney Wonder. In total, the Canada Place terminal received 1.4 million passengers and 358 vessel calls, representing an 18% increase in passengers and a 19% increase in calls compared to 2025, when 1.2 million visitors and 300 arrivals were recorded.

The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority highlighted that cruise activity injected more than $1 billion into the local economy during the season, according to Jeff Scott, Vice President of Operations and Supply Chain at the authority. Splash Cruise specified that figure at over C$1 billion (about US$730 million), while the port authority estimated that each cruise ship docking at Canada Place generates around CAD 3 million in economic activity for the city. July was the busiest month on record, with more than 290,000 passengers at the terminal.

Ahead of the 2027 season, the port plans to begin expanding its shore power capacity in the coming months, increasing from three to five berths, enabling about 90 additional vessel connections per year to British Columbia's low-carbon electricity grid. This expansion is expected to prevent around 3,300 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per season, equivalent to taking about 770 gasoline-powered cars off the road each year.

A recent cruise passenger survey, cited by both Cruise Mapper and Splash Cruise, showed that 76% of visitors spent time in Vancouver before or after their voyage, six percentage points higher than in the 2023 survey. On average, each passenger spent CAD 1,144 on accommodation, meals, shopping, tours and local attractions, and stayed 1.4 nights in the city, while travelers from outside North America stayed an average of 2.6 nights.

According to Splash Cruise, a decade ago Canada Place handled about 830,000 passengers and 228 calls; traffic surpassed one million in 2019 before the pandemic and hit a new record in 2023 with 1.25 million passengers. In 2026, Virgin Voyages and The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection made their debut in Vancouver, and Disney Cruise Line added a second ship homeported at the port. Marc Kazlauskas, President of Norwegian Cruise Line, noted that being homeported in the city gives passengers the opportunity to extend their vacations and enjoy its natural beauty and culture.

Splash Cruise also noted that Victoria is approaching its own record, with 335 scheduled calls and more than one million passengers expected, compared to 310 calls and 989,950 passengers in 2025. Prince Rupert projected about 145,000 visitors, more than double the 68,443 recorded the previous year, and Nanaimo scheduled eight calls, double the number in 2025. Facial biometric technology introduced in 2024 has already reduced average U.S. border control times to under 10 seconds, while preliminary bookings for 2027 point to another strong year in terms of vessel calls and passenger numbers.