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Poll: What is Vancouver's most iconic tourist district?

Where do you take visitors to the city?
iconic-vancouver-districts
Clockwise from top left: Kitsilano Beach, Granville Island's public market, Gastown, and Canada Place.

Over the decades tourism has become a major driver for the city's economy, with people travelling from around the world to visit the sites and sights of the city.

Over that period several districts have been positioned as major tourist draws, from the food and shopping of areas like Granville Island and the West End, to the historic Gastown to the natural beauty of Stanley Park.

It's that final area that most locals regard as the most iconic tourist district. The city's oldest park is often referred to as the gem of the city. Between its dense forest right next to the city, the seawall, the beaches, the views stretching from the city's core to the North Shore Mountains to English Bay, and its amenities (including the Vancouver Aquarium), there are plenty of reasons to pick it first.

In second place is Granville Island, with 21 per cent of the local vote. Given it was converted from an industrial site in the 70s and 80s into the current destination, it makes sense that it ranks high on the list.

In third is Gastown, the first neighbourhood in what would become Vancouver. Much like Granville Island, a lot of effort has been put into creating a tourist-friendly district in the area.

Vancouver Is Awesome polled 920 Vancouver Is Awesome readers and asked the question: What's Vancouver's most iconic tourist district?

The poll ran from 9/8/2024 to 9/13/2024. Of the 920 votes, we can determine that 419 are from within the community. The full results are as follows:

Stanley Park 57.04% local, 60.54% total    
Gastown 13.84% local, 13.37% total    
Granville Island 21.00% local, 18.80% total    
Kitsilano 1.19% local, 1.30% total    
Robson/Denman streets 1.91% local, 1.41% total    
Canada Place/convention centre 4.77% local, 4.57% total    
  Local   Total

Results are based on an online study of adult Vancouver Is Awesome readers that are located in Vancouver. The margin of error - which measures sample variability - is +/- 3.23%, 19 times out of 20.

Vancouver Is Awesome uses a variety of techniques to capture data, detect and prevent fraudulent votes, detect and prevent robots, and filter out non-local and duplicate votes.