Tourism sector hopes there’s light at end of the tunnel
It is approximately one year since COVID-19 started to take hold in B.C. and its impact has been devastating on many sectors — including tourism and its more than 19,000 operators across the province.
The BC Regional Tourism Secretariat and its five regional associations have a decades-long relationships with more than 8,000 tourism operators in the North, Cariboo, Thompson-Okanagan, Kootenays and Vancouver Island.
As a trusted adviser to the regions, the Secretariat continues to place a high priority on helping businesses adapt and respond to evolving health guidelines and assist them in accessing supports.
Since last March, the Secretariat has conducted a series of surveys of tourism businesses in the five regions to collect information on the evolving impact of the pandemic and help inform government decision-making.
In the Thompson-Okanagan, based on more than 1,500 survey responses, while there have been fluctuations over the year, on average, only 20% of businesses reported to be operating as usual.
Approximately 23% of operators were closed at any given point during the past year because of the business impact of COVID-19.
On average, about 57% of businesses reported operating at a reduced capacity in the past year.
Since July 2020, about 30% of businesses responding to the survey each month reported losing 50% or more of their revenue compared to the same month in 2019.
In the early days of the pandemic, the Secretariat established the BC Tourism Resiliency Network, making available to operators — a team of experts in health and safety, human resources, finance and strategic planning, and digital marketing services — to provide advice and assistance.
Over the past year, the number of contacts between the Resiliency Network and businesses, totalled more than 28,000 — in the form of one-on-one discussions, participation in seminars, ideas labs and assistance in accessing federal or provincial programs.
Demand for Tourism Resiliency Network support remains strong — but success or impact can’t be measured by numbers alone because every one of these numbers represents a mother, a father or individual whose livelihood is at stake. But when these people say this support has “offered hope” or “helped keep our head above water,” that is what underlines how important this effort continues to be.
No one can say with certainty what may unfold over the next several months. But paramount will be our ongoing and collective commitment to flattening the curve and seeing a vaccination program fully up and running — and completed.
Even though now is not the time to travel, our hope is that as we get closer to summer and warmer weather, it may signal a turning point, some measure of relief from COVID and as a result, a more active tourism sector.
A comment from one tourism operator reflects the reality for many, suggesting the key for his business is to survive long enough is to get past this difficult period, regroup and move forward — adding if his business is able to do that, it will eventually be fine.
And that is our hope for every business trying to manage their way through this unprecedented period.
DEAR EDITOR:
Would things be different if Canada had our own vaccine production? Domestic production did not determine the ability to vaccinate its population in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. Home to major vaccine factories, their citizens still have to wait for months to receive vaccines made within their borders.
Canada signed contracts early and for more doses than most other countries. The government was told the vaccines would not receive final approval until the spring of 2021 and signed contractual delivery dates.
But vaccines for international distribution were ready months ahead of expectations. And now after a month long scramble by countries to secure vaccine supplies; it’s looking like a fool’s errand.
The World Health Organization head, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus publically warns, “Vaccine-nationalism is morally indefensible.
“It is epidemiologically self-defeating and counterproductive trying to get your country served earlier; because you cause an uneven and delayed international vaccination that will accelerate the rise of mutant variants and make the disease hit your county and its economy harder.”
Canadians should remember this particular nature about our vaccine supply, before we cast angry aspersions.
Jon Peter Christoff, West Kelowna