Anxiety and innovation
COVID-19 fallout is The Guardian’s News Story of the Year
The P.E.I. government’s tourism marketing plan released in late February for 2020 included an interesting strategy — let’s attract more visitors from Alberta.
That Tourism P.E.I. idea followed an earlier announcement by the Charlottetown airport that WestJet was going to be offering a direct flight between Charlottetown and Calgary in the summer in what was expected to be record tourism year on the Island.
“It seems like a lifetime ago,” said Corryn Clemence, CEO of the Tourism Industry Association of P.E.I., reflecting on that February tourism marketing announcement.
Roughly three weeks after the marketing plan was released, everything changed as a result of COVID-19.
On March 18, the P.E.I. government shut down all non-essential services and businesses, including shopping malls. Bars with food service and restaurants closed dining rooms and relied on take-out, curbside pickup and delivery services to keep some money flowing in.
Those drastic measures and their impacts on Island businesses and everyday citizens are why the COVID19 fallout is The Guardian’s News Story of the Year for 2020.
“There is no question that COVID-19 has affected the lives of everyone around the world, every Islander included,” said Guardian managing editor Jocelyne Lloyd. “We chose to focus on tourism businesses in P.E.I. because the sharp decline in visitors this summer didn’t only have economic consequences we will likely feel for years to come, it also changed the whole character of the Island for those months when we are used to having that extra population at our beaches and restaurants, generating summer jobs for students, extra income for the rest of us and a real buzz of excitement on our streets and boardwalks.”
Clemence says businesses in the tourism sector should be given a lot of credit for adapting, being innovative and making some difficult decisions in 2020, such as choosing to operate at a reduced capacity or in a different manner.
Clemence joined TIAPEI in mid-June from the Charlottetown Harbour Authority (now Port Charlottetown). She said the experience in this new role has been both challenging and inspiring.
“In some moments, I hear the despair and the worry from our operators, and it’s heartbreaking not to have answers for them and not to know when things will turn for the better. And then in the next breath, I’m so inspired by the resourcefulness and creativity and the passion that so many of our operators have for the business they’re in,” she said.
Businesses on P.E.I. have endured a year of restrictions, a three-month shutdown that began in March and a more recent temporary “circuit breaker” in December.
Many businesses have estimated revenues to be down by 40-60 per cent compared to last year.
Besides the restrictions, another common obstacle often cited by business owners is the impact of more people working from home and less foot traffic going into businesses, especially in places like Charlottetown and Summerside.
To get by, Island businesses have taken advantage of government programs, such as the federal government’s wage, rent and loan programs. Businesses also saw more Islanders supporting and buying local in 2020.
Speaking recently with the SaltWire Network, Tara Maddix, executive director of the Greater Summerside Chamber of Commerce, said a common concern expressed by business owners is with finances in the future. One thing that has impressed Maddix is how businesses have collaborated, pivoted and found ways to stay open and keep people employed rather than choosing to close during the pandemic.
“I have to give them credit for the effort they put into their physical spaces to make sure customers were safe and confident and to go in there. And, really just rolling with it on a day-to-day basis because it’s easy to give up,” she said.
For the tourism industry, which at one time had an estimated $447 million annual impact on economic activity, COVID-19 was significant. In 2019, 87 cruise ships carrying 128,000 passengers and 55,000 crew members sailed into Charlottetown. In 2020, there were none.
Travel restrictions, including the non-essential travel ban into P.E.I. early on, contributed to traffic across the Confederation Bridge being down more than 90 per cent in April, May and June. It also shifted the tourism focus to staycations and expanded to include neighbouring New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland when the Atlantic travel bubble opened on July 3.
The Atlantic bubble also improved bridge traffic, though it was still down by 60 per cent in July and by 49 per cent in August, compared to 2019. Accommodations and room nights sold were down more than 82 per cent from April to June but also improved with the Atlantic bubble.
The same can’t be said for air travel, which has been down more than 90 per cent since March and peaked at being down by 97 per cent in May at the Charlottetown Airport. As a result of COVID-19, the airport has seen a steady stream of flight cancellations from major airlines, most recently the announced suspension of an important Air Canada direct flight between Charlottetown and Toronto that is expected to begin on Jan. 11.
“It’s been a bit of a roller coaster ride for most of the (tourism) industry,” said Clemence in a December interview.
“We started off looking to a record-breaking year probably from all sectors within the industry. We had new flights coming in. We were preparing for a recordbreaking cruise season; everything was looking to be up. And then, of course, COVID hit in March, and that seems to have made some drastic changes overall.”
Moving forward, Clemence said the members of the tourism industry need to do a better job communicating with each other, as well as with Islanders, about the role they play in making tourism successful. She also said tourism operators need to continue being flexible and open to professional development opportunities and education on ways to improve their businesses.
After roughly nine months of dealing with COVID-19, Clemence said a lot of tourism operators are still concerned with the unknowns as they approach the 2021 tourism season. As of Jan. 1, the Atlantic bubble remains suspended, and COVID-19 cases continue to be an issue in the U.S. and across Canada, including provinces like Ontario and Quebec, which are two important sources of tourism traffic for the Island each year.
“Will we be open to the rest of Atlantic Canada? Will we be restricted to just Islanders again? Open to the rest of Canada? It’s difficult for most operators to plan accordingly and budget and build those business plans for the next season with so many unknowns,” she said.
“I think moving forward what we can do as an industry association is to work with operators to make sure they’re prepared for whatever does come.”