Cross-border shopping buses filled with Chinese and Korean Canadian consumers were once ubiquitous outside Washington state malls, but they have all-but disappeared from the commercial landscape, dealing a heavy blow to border-town businesses.
The removal of COVID-19 restrictions at the border late last year has boosted the number of Canadians making land crossings to the United States, but consumers and tour operators say the pandemic may have altered people's travel and purchasing behaviour, greatly diminishing demand for one-day shopping tours south of the border.
Xie said the US tours were once popular with travellers from China visiting Canada. They were attracted by some luxury consumer goods priced significantly lower than in China."There are not as many flights coming to Canada right now, and because of that, airfares may be too expensive for shopping tourists to get here," he said.
The decline of shopping bus tours isn't the only factor hampering recovery for border-town businesses. "The exchange rate has been consistently unfavourable, and the cost of living in Vancouver has risen so much that we are reducing unnecessary spending as much as we can," Jiang said. "And with the pandemic closing the border for a time, we really don't have the urge to cross just to shop."
Chiang also said people's increasing comfort with online shopping means consumers can get products with U.S. pricing online, with packages mailed to places like Blaine for pickup without needing to venture to a brick-and-mortar store in Washington.
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