A 3.5 per cent jump in passenger numbers at the Kamloops airport last month is likely tied to a coinciding boost in tourism, manager Fred Legace said Friday.

The increase compares the total number of passengers going through the terminal last month those of September 2010.

Kamloops is turning from a predominantly outbound travel market to one that’s heavier on incoming, he said.

Legace said that’s largely driven by golf and ski traffic.

“Here in Kamloops, it’s never looked better,” he said, noting a lot of other cities are seeing impacts from the waivering economy.

“We’re just marching to our own drummer.”

Tourism Kamloops chief executive officer Lee Morris said she won’t get September’s tourist figures for a couple of months yet.

The most recent numbers she had were to the end of July.

They showed a 15-per-cent increase in tourist traffic in the first seven months of this year compared with the same time period in 2010.

The statistics are based on the hotel tax, so it measures corporate, leisure and sport travel combined.

“From what we’ve looked at, certainly Kamloops is outpacing a number of other cities in terms of (tourism) growth,” she said.

Repeat sport tournaments that have been held in Kamloops for years are helping to provide a stable base, plus family travel has been on the rise, she noted.

Her agency launched a kid-friendly Kamloops campaign this year.

Although she didn’t have figures yet for August and September, Morris expected they will be good, especially since the weather was ideal during much of those months.