Whale Watching Worldwide

Canada
Year Number of
whale
watchers
AAGR Number of
operators
Direct
expenditure
Indirect
expenditure
Total
expenditure
1991 185,200 N/A N/A $5,724,000 $23,421,000 $29,145,000
1994 462,000 35.6% N/A $14,154,000 $50,085,000 $64,239,000
1998 1,075,304 23.5% 237 $27,438,000 $168,077,000 $195,515,000
2008 1,165,684 0.8% 206 $48,420,000 $101,946,000 $150,366,000
Capital City: Ottawa
Canada has one of the world’s largest whale watching industries,
with activities on both Atlantic and Pacific coasts, as well as the
country’s Arctic regions. The industry has shown only moderate
growth since 1998, remaining at a reasonably consistent level in
terms of both numbers and revenues. As whale watching expands
across the globe, there is more competition between whale
watching locations. Some mature areas are consolidating their
position, while others face more competition as their whale
watching seems less unique than it did ten years ago. These trends
are evident in various locations around Canada.
Five main regions have been assessed in this report and combined they show a picture of a mature whale
watching industry that has been a well established part of the country’s tourism attraction for many years.
Below we have included a regional breakdown of the main whale watching locations across Canada. The
data in the following sections reflect regional proportions of the above total number of whale watchers for
the entire country.
201