Hotel bookings during World Cup down from last year, but B.C. minister sees positives

VICTORIA - British Columbia’s jobs minister isn’t disputing hotel data that suggests Vancouver hotel vacancies on World Cup game days are down sharply compared to the same dates last year.

But Ravi Kahlon takes a positive view of analytics provided by U.S. hotel data firm CoStar, showing that as of June 1, occupancy for Vancouver’s first match on Saturday between Australia and Turkey is 57.4 per cent, down from 71.6 per cent on the same date a year ago.