Hotelier reveals toll from smoke
Using hotel tax revenue to assess the last summer tourist season doesn’t tell the whole story, says one local business owner whose operations were deeply affected by wildfire smoke.
As reported in December, hoteliers pulled in $23.5 million from May through September last year, up from $22.9 million in 2017, according to remittances of the special hotel tax received by the B.C. government.
While that would seem to indicate an uptick in tourism, the figures on their own are actually somewhat misleading.
A new report for the month of July 2018 released by industry group CBRE Hotels put the average daily rate of a room in Penticton at $151.18, up from $143.52 in 2017, while occupancy rates dipped 0.5 per cent versus the year-ago period.
And the manager of the Penticton Lakeside Resort said those numbers pale in comparison to August.
“Penticton was down 8.8 per cent in August in occupancy. And that’s all because of smoke,” said David Prystay.
In August alone, the resort had over 1,000 room cancellations due to smoke, according to Prystay, while its Hooded Merganser restaurant experienced 1,140 patio reservation cancellations.
The first half of September was the same, with Prystay saying that smoke and bad press through social media continued to keep tourists away.
Mid-September through to October is the time of year Prystay dubs “convention month,” with the hotel hosting groups and events that bring in visitors from out of town.
But even so, the occupancy rate continued to drop: September was down by 5.8 per cent year over year.
Thom Tischik, executive director for Travel Penticton, confirmed the decline in occupancy rates for August, but said in an email it was “fairly universal in the area.”
“Tourism is not unlike farming, we are dependent on the weather and, importantly, external factors out of our range of control can greatly affect the year.
“The smoke and fires of 2018 are past and all of our valley communities are looking forward with a positive outlook,” he added.
Tischik said Travel Penticton worked hard to keep a positive media presence by holding several campaigns, one being its Real Time effort in the summer.
The campaign targeted locals and business owners and encouraged them to post short videos on social media platforms to show tourists the forest fire season wasn’t as bad as it appeared.
“We never know what may be coming our way so we need to have a balance between proactive and reactive marketing strategies,” said Tischik.