Hotels filled up despite flooding, smoke
Despite spring flooding and summer smoke, tourism in Kelowna held its own in 2017.
Just-released figures from Tourism Kelowna show hotel occupancy in the city averaged 63.8 per cent last year, just off the record of 64.1 per cent set in 2016.
“This is a rebound success story,” said Tourism Kelowna CEO Lisanne Ballantyne.
“Weather-related challenges aside, 2017 proved to be another year of growth for Kelowna and area. Our tourism businesses work hard to offer exceptional experiences throughout the year. These experiences are a major draw for Kelowna and the reason hotel occupancy levels remained steady in 2017.”
Occupancy rates of around 64 per cent don’t sound that high.
However, the average is just that, an average. It’s a balance of occupancy rates of 90 per cent and above in high-season summer and as low as the 30 per cent in some winter weeks.
While hotel occupancy was strong in the summer, it fell just short of the 2016 record.
That’s a surprise, considering the doom and gloom talk through the spring and summer.
A quick snow melt under unseasonably warm temperature in the spring, followed by heavy rain caused flooding in Kelowna creeks that empty into Okanagan Lake.
That in turn caused the lake the overflow and resulted in a no-wake order.
That meant boaters had to tone it down for most of the summer.
To make matters worse, smoke from fires in other regions of B.C. and Washington state blew in and created a choking haze that persisted for weeks.
There was talk of people cancelling their Kelowna vacations and everyone staying indoors to avoid the adverse conditions.
“We know the weather had an impact on local accommodators,” said Kelowna Hotel Motel Association president Sean Coward, who is manager of the Hotel Eldorado.
“We still saw visitors come, but some may have chosen to shorten their stay. Kelowna had a very strong year in 2016. To see our 2017 hotel occupancy numbers keep pace with that growth is a sign of a strong and desirable destination. We’re optimistic growth will continue in 2018.”
While Kelowna is known for its hot, sunny and dry summers, its tourism isn’t completely based on the weather and outdoor activities.
The city has other diversified offerings from wineries, dining and shopping to conventions, culture and concerts.
Slight hotel occupancy increases in September, October, November and December were able to make up the slack from the summer.
The occupancy numbers are from a report by CBRE Limited, which tracked activity at 16 of Kelowna biggest hotels with a total of 2,100 rooms.
Overall, the Central Okanagan has about 40 hotels with around 4,500 rooms.
Tourism is one of Kelowna’s biggest industries with close to two million overnight visitors annually who spend $337 million directly on accommodation, transportation, meals, tours, entertainment and shopping.
In all, tourism contributes over $1.25 million in total economic output a year.
The goal is to increase the tourist count to three million by 2021.