Campground owners ready to put parks into gear
Newfoundland campground operators dealing with uncertainty as new season arrives
With the 2021 camping season readying to get underway, Ruth Forsey-gale says her mood has been in a daily state of flux.
“It’s like this,” the owner/ operator of Pirate’s Haven RV Park and Chalets in Robinsons on the province’s southwest coast said.
“Some days, I’m all full of positivity and gumption, and some more days, it’s confusion and mayhem and despair, but we still have to hope for the best and move forward.”
Pirate’s Haven has 60 sites serviced with water, electricity and sewer, about a third of which have been booked for the full season, she says.
Forsey-gale is generally more optimistic this year than last, saying Pirate’s Haven is making plans to go ahead with events and festivals it normally holds, but which were cancelled last season, given the uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Now, we’re much more in tune with the safety aspects of it, and the protocols, and so I think we’re all working in that direction. We’re hoping to be able to kick back into a bit of what we’ll call our normal activities and have a few functions this year,” she said.
Interest so far has been slightly higher, she says.
However, there’s still uncertainty, particularly when it comes to the business’s roofed accommodations, which are supported almost entirely by non-residents of the province.
“If the Atlantic bubble doesn’t open, it’s looking very, very different,” she said.
PLENTY OF UNCERTAINTY
Bridges Employment Corporation has operated the Horse Brook Trailer Park in Fortune for 25 years, leasing the facility from the town and employing people with disabilities.
“Last year was a bust … one of the worst years ever, I think,” said Robert Periera, chair of the charity’s board for seven years.
Nevertheless, Periera said the park is in the process of doubling up its number of available sites to 40.
“This year, it seems like it may be better. We’re getting a lot of reservations, but you don’t know what’s going to happen with this pandemic ... if they’re going to close or open or what,” he said.
Periera said the park put in strict guidelines last year to ensure its facilities are sanitized and that government regulations are followed, but as important as that might be, it doesn’t guarantee business.
There are other more telling factors
For example, a caravan from Quebec made reservations at Horse Brook for this summer, hopeful it would be allowed to travel to the province by then. It now seems unlikely it will be able to, Periera said.
He is also keeping a close eye on developments with the Atlantic bubble, which had originally been scheduled to be open by now. However, that’s been postponed due to COVID-19 outbreaks in the Maritimes,
“If the bubble ever opens up, we probably could do good, and if St-pierre ever opens up again to us,” he added, referring to the French islands of St-pierremiquelon, located off the Burin Peninsula and connected by ferry to Fortune
Before the delay, the French islands had been lobbying for inclusion in the bubble with Atlantic Canada.
‘NERVOUS TIME’
Ivan Hapgood, owner of Jack’s Pond Park near Arnold’s Cove, says this is the “most nervous time” for the whole season.
“We’ll invest upwards of fifty, sixty, seventy thousand dollars over the next two weeks, just getting ready and stocking up the store,” he said.
“If we get a shut down after that, that’s fifty or sixty thousand you could have had to pay the bills until next May.”
Jack’s Pond Park is set to open Friday.
Hapgood said the business had a good year in 2020 all told and this season looks like it will be busy once again.
Hapgood said all 385 sites in the park could have been sold to seasonal users, but 40 are being kept available for “offroad traffic,” tourists stopping for the night. Because of the pandemic, the park cancelled or adapted its regular summer events last year, including Canada Day and Halloween and Christmas celebrations. What will happen in that regard this year remains to be seen, but Hapgood feels positive overall.
“If some measures have to tighten but not get real tight, then I think they would look at camping as something that could probably take place safely,” he said.