Tourism Kamloops Insights: August 2026
Riverside Beach
Andrew Snucins
A closer look at Kamloops’ August 2026 visitor data and the story behind the headline numbers.
By The Numbers
| Revenue Per Available Room (RevPAR) | $190.53 (+14.6% year over year) |
| Average Daily Rate (ADR) | $207.90 (+8.0% year over year) |
Occupancy Rate | 91.6% (+6.0% year over year) |
| Total Room Night Demand | 88,146 (+6.1% year over year) |
| Total Hospitality Revenue | $18.33 Million (+14.6% year over year) |
Average Website Session Duration | 2m 50s (+22.3% year over year) |
August capped off peak summer with record-setting financial performance across Kamloops, driven by strong room night demand and expanded lodging pricing power. Total hospitality revenue surged to $18.33 million (+14.6% year over year), marking the highest monthly revenue gain of the summer season. While total visitor volume adjusted to 112,775 trips (-16.9% YoY) due to regional domestic contraction, actual hotel room night demand grew 6.1% to 88,146 nights. Local lodging capacity operated at a summer peak of 91.6% occupancy (+6.0% YoY), effectively selling out available rooms and lifting RevPAR by 14.6% to $190.53
Growth was strongly anchored by high-value external markets and key urban origin centers. External travellers generated a disproportionate economic impact, contributing 17.3% of all visitor nights from 15.3% of total trips. Continental Europe demonstrated remarkable momentum, led by Germany (+43.3% to 2,400 trips), the Netherlands (+103.1%), and Spain (+67.7%), while U.S. travel expanded in key growth states like Arizona (+23.4%) and Pennsylvania (+13.8%). Domestically, Canadian stay lengths expanded to 1.8 nights per trip (+2.7%), supported by solid gains in major metropolitan hubs including Surrey (+4.7% to 7,000 trips), Vancouver (+6.7% to 5,100 trips), and Edmonton (+14.3% to 4,600 trips).
Strategic Focus: Growth Opportunities & Market Dynamics
Analyzing August's movement patterns reveals clear strategic pathways to build on this summer momentum as Kamloops transitions into the fall.
External travellers continue to deliver higher relative yield, with international visits averaging 2.4 nights per trip and generating approximately 1.7 times the room-night value of a domestic trip. Maintaining multi-night package incentives for long-haul markets provides a direct lever to extend visitor stays and maximize total destination spend. With local lodging operating near maximum physical capacity at 91.6% occupancy, future volume expansion centers on channelling marketing momentum into shoulder-season periods. Early September pacing already reflects strong demand at 89.4% occupancy (+20.2% revenue growth), creating a seamless bridge into fall and winter campaigns where available room inventory exists to support further volume growth.
Visitor Activity & Digital Engagement
Summer travel choices remained focused on outdoor lifestyle and active recreation experiences. Recreation facilities dominated location-of-interest visits by capturing 50% of all tracked activity, followed by casinos at 20%, while golf courses, large gathering venues, and cultural locations each accounted for 10%.
Digital channels delivered higher-quality traffic and more efficient user conversion. Average website session duration grew 22.3% to 2 minutes and 50 seconds, with engaged sessions climbing to 64.1% of total web traffic. Paid media campaigns achieved exceptional alignment, with 99.5% of social ad clicks converting directly into website sessions, while Google Search led channel efficiency, with Freeride search ads achieving an 18.69% conversion rate.
Regional Context: Kamloops Outpaces Thompson Okanagan Benchmarks
Comparing local results with the broader Thompson Okanagan region shows how Kamloops outpaced regional financial averages while staying aligned with key regional travel trends.
Regionally, total visitor spending increased by +9.3% YTD across the Thompson Okanagan, whereas Kamloops generated a +14.6% monthly revenue surge, contrasting with lodging revenue declines in neighbouring destinations like Kelowna (-18.3%) and Abbotsford (-12.0%). Kamloops’ 91.6% occupancy stood well above the regional August occupancy average of 76.9% and the regional YTD average of 65.8%. This pushed Kamloops' RevPAR to $190.53 versus the regional YTD RevPAR of $134.60, while Kamloops' Average Daily Rate of $207.90 outstripped the regional YTD ADR of $198.60 and narrowed Kamloops' historical ADR gap with Kelowna from $85 to $61.
At the same time, Kamloops aligned with broader regional trends in length-of-stay growth and origin-market strength, as long-haul international visitors across both Kamloops and the region stayed significantly longer, driving high-yield overnight volume.
Overall, August 2026 set a new summer benchmark with record lodging revenues, higher room rates, strong European visitation, and highly efficient digital engagement, creating a strong operational foundation for the upcoming shoulder season.
