Why can't we entrust BC Ferries to market their service as that, though? They're the immediate beneficiary of increased traffic but they haven't been doing all that much to market their routes as an experience onto itself ...or have they and we just don't know about it locally?
Not at all sure its that easy unfortunately Mike; born, raised and educated here but I've lived twice in YVR from 1987-90 and again from 1996-2001 and I can tell you that whenever I mentioned I was heading "home" to visit family or friends that was usually met with a rolling of eyes, a shrug and knowing smirk along with something like "back to Fantasy Island, eh?" Or the variant, with respect to Victoria specifically "...going back to Mayberry, huh?"
And when I would have serious conversations with mainland-Vancouver friends inquiring when they were last on VI and Victoria particularly - we're talking about people at the time who were in the 40-ish age bracket - it was very common to discover that "Victoria? Haven't been there since my grade 9 field trip". Not kidding either.
When I would further ask why they thought that was, the answer was typically immediate and rarely varied "What is there that I can't get here?" Tough question when you think about it. Are you going to come here for shopping vs what Robson Street, Granville Island or Yaletown offers? Highly improbable. Restaurants? Not a chance and no point even going down that path. Nature and the natural environment? Hm, well you may have heard about the North Shore mountains, Deep Cove, Squamish, Whistler, Manning Park, Alouette Lake, the Sunshine Coast etc. You get the picture. I'll grant you whale watching is easier from Victoria but I doubt catering to whale watcher's is going to significantly Up your tourism numbers. When you really think about it Victoria viz a viz Vancouver is a pretty tough sell and that comes from a native Victorian.