Whistler hasn’t seen the same boost in its overnight stays - at least not yet.

According to a news release from the B.C. Ministry of Tourism, the numbers of international visitors arriving through customs into B.C. have increased for the fourth straight month over last year. From the beginning of the year until the end of September, overnight visitor arrivals to B.C. grew by 3.2 per cent.

“We’ve heard our tourism businesses express renewed confidence, pride and optimism as some of the 3.5 billion people who watched B.C. on TV and online during the Games come to our beautiful province to experience British

Columbia firsthand,” Margaret MacDiarmid, B.C.’s tourism minister, said in a statement issued Friday (Nov. 19).

“This month’s increase in international overnight visitors builds on a trend that will open up new jobs in every region of the province, and along with our approved destination status in China, create opportunities for exponential growth in B.C.’s tourism industry.”

But with Whistler’s high season opposite from other tourism destinations in the province, it will take a little longer for the post-Olympic wave to hit the resort, said Arlene Schieven, Tourism Whistler’s (TW) vice president of marketing.

“We can’t really compare until we get into seeing our key season (winter),” Schieven said on Monday (Nov. 22).

“We are forecasting that we’ll have increases from all those international markets in the winter. That’s definitely our expectation.”