After a favourable increase in its first-quarter earnings, BC Ferries is offering a half-price sale from September 8 to October 15.
During those weeks, the passenger fares from Monday to Thursday, plus Saturday, will be:
• $6.05 per adult, compared to the regular rate of $12.10 and the Experience Card rate of $7.35
• $3.05 per child (five to 11) and seniors.
The vehicle rates remain the same.
“While we are uncertain how long this current growth in traffic will last, this promotion allows us an opportunity this fall to test variable pricing concepts in order to understand their impact on traffic trends, customer responses and operations,” says BC Ferries president Mike Corrigan in a press release issued Monday.
From April to June, passenger traffic across the system increased five per cent and vehicle traffic increased 4.7 per cent.
Adam Holbrook, the chair of the Bowen Island Municipal Transportation Advisory Committee, applauds the experiment with fare rates but says the information needs to be broken down route by route to be of particular benefit for Bowen Island
“BC Ferries is dealing with two separate businesses,” he says. The Mainland to Vancouver Island routes are successful money-makers and, when demand increases, additional ferries can be added.
The minor routes, such as Bowen Island, do not currently enjoy such flexibility.
“We’ve been pushing for a relief vessel [for Langdale and Snug Cove] for when the line-ups get to long,” Holbrook says.
He’s not sure how the price cut will affect volume. Again, it depends on how the numbers are broken down.
“Seniors, for instance, are very price sensitive,” Holbrook says.
He invites everyone to drop by the committee’s booth at Bowfest. They will have schedules for “all conceivable modes of transportation, including skateboards,” and also invite people to share their views on all modes of transportation.
“If people have questions, there will be people at the booth to answer them.”
Meanwhile, the BC Ferries bump in business appears to coincides with an overall increase in the number of people visiting British Columbia. This past June, there were 52,000 more visitors than the previous June, an increase of 8.3 per cent.
The biggest increase was the number of American tourists taking advantage of the low Canadian dollar. That figure was up 13.2 per cent, representing 47,000 visits over last June, the provincial government says. Growth from the Asia-Pacific region has meant more visitors from Japan (up 10.3 per cent over last June), India (up 14.1 per cent) and South Korea (up 8.4 per cent).
Corrigan says BC Ferries will monitor the effect that that price discount has and take the information into account while preparing its Far Flexibility and Digital Experience Initiative in 2017.
