The Rocky Mountains of Alberta are world-renowned for their majestic beauty and are well loved among Canadians, with almost 5.5 million domestic visits to the region in 2024. Let’s take a look at domestic visits to Alberta’s Rockies, with a focus on who visits and when, where they stayed, how they got there and how much they spent while visiting.
The Canadian Rockies form nearly half of the physical border between British Columbia and Alberta. For this story, we will be looking at tourism in the Alberta Rockies only, using data from the National Travel Survey.
Visits to the Alberta Rockies approach record highs in 2024
The number of domestic visits to the Alberta Rockies rose by 11.4% year over year to 5.5 million visits in 2024. This was the third-highest number of visits to the region on record and 3.8% below the all-time high set in 2021 (5.7 million visits). Prior to the pandemic in 2019, Canadians made 4.9 million visits to Alberta’s Rockies.
Given that the Rockies are a short 90-minute drive from Calgary and just under a four-hour drive from Edmonton, perhaps not surprisingly, almost 9 out of every 10 visits to the Alberta Rockies in 2024 was made by an Albertan. British Columbia residents ranked second, with 291,000 visits to the region in 2024, while Ontario residents ranked third, with 160,000 visits.
Late spring and high summer are the busiest seasons in the Alberta Rockies
The busiest time in the Rockies in terms of visits is during late spring and high summer. In August 2024, there were 793,000 visits to the Alberta Rockies, up 6.0% from one year earlier, despite the disruption caused by wildfires that lead to the evacuation of Jasper for most of the month. July was the second-busiest month, with 566,000 visits in 2024.
March is traditionally the busiest month during the ski season, with 516,000 visits in 2024, up by over one-quarter (+26.2%) from one year earlier and almost double (+98.5%) the number of visits in March 2019, prior to the pandemic.
Over half of all visits to the Alberta Rockies are day trips
Almost three out of every five visits (58.1%; 3.2 million visits) to the Alberta Rockies in 2024 were same-day visits, while 700,000 visitors stayed one night, 914,000 stayed two nights and 183,000 stayed from 5 to 10 nights.
The majority (2.0 million) of nights spent by visitors to the region were in a hotel, while 1.2 million nights were spent in other commercial lodgings, such as a hostel or bed and breakfast. A further 917,000 nights were spent under the stars in a campground.
Most visitors arrive by car or truck
As the main mode of transportation for their trip, just over 9 out of every 10 visits (5.0 million) to the Rockies in 2024 were by car or truck, while 203,000 visits were by plane (mostly landing in either Calgary or Edmonton, as there are only small airports in the Alberta Rockies). A further 78,000 visits were by bus or train, and 58,000 visits were by a camper or recreational vehicle.
Tourism spending in the Alberta Rockies up by almost three-fifths since 2019
The Alberta Rockies are among Canada’s premier tourist destinations, and the major tourist sites are located within three national parks, hence limiting tourist infrastructure development. This can sometimes mean that accommodation, food, drink and other services can be pricier than elsewhere in Canada.
Canadians spent just under $2 billion visiting the Alberta Rockies in 2024, up by over one-fifth (+21.1%) from one year earlier and 58.9% more than what was spent in 2019. Just over one-third (34.7%) of the spending in 2024 went towards accommodation, almost one-quarter (23.3%) was spent on food and drink at restaurants, while 11.7% was spent on recreation such as on a gondola, boat cruise or ski lift pass.
In 2024, almost half (45.7%; 2.5 million visits) of all visits to the Rockies were taken by Canadians with a household income of $150,000 or more, up by over four-fifths (+82.8%) compared with prior to the pandemic in 2019. A further 1.3 million visits in 2024 were made by Canadians with an income ranging from $100,000 to $150,000 per year, up 1.1% compared with prior to the pandemic in 2019. Conversely, there were 406,000 visits in 2024 by Canadians with an annual income of less than $50,000 per year, down by 41.5% compared with 2019.
Impact of Jasper wildfire on tourism visits to the Alberta Rockies
The full effects of the wildfire on tourism in the Alberta Rockies will emerge with the release of annual 2025 data in the spring of 2026.
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