Pandemic fallout lies heavy on sector

Tourists from the U.S. sit at 85 per cent of 2019 levels, according to Destination Canada

Maureen Gordon has weathered hard times before.

She and her husband began running ecotourism outfit Maple Leaf Adventures out of Vancouver about a month before the 9/11 terrorist attacks devastated international travel in 2001.

The rebound was relatively quick. Fallout from COVID-19 has proven much more prolonged.

“The pandemic of course was incredibly tumultuous and scary, as it was, I think, for most tour businesses in Canada,” said Gordon, who runs week-long sojourns on a schooner, converted tug boat and catamaran along the Pacific coast.

Tourism has come roaring back from pandemic lows, but operators say the sector has yet to reach preCOVID levels and debt remains a hefty burden for thousands of small businesses across the country.

International visitor numbers remained down from four years earlier, with tourists from the U.S. at 85 per cent of 2019 levels and those from further afield at 78 per cent, according to Crown corporation Destination Canada.

The industry brought in more than $109 billion in revenue last year, about four per cent more than in 2019 but significantly less in real terms after accounting for inflation, according to the Tourism Industry Association of Canada.

The number of active tourismlinked businesses sat slightly below pre-pandemic levels as of December, while the number of businesses overall surpassed 2019 figures, data from Destination Canada showed.

Across all sectors, two in three small- and medium-sized enterprises still held pandemic debt at the end of last year, with an average of $107,700, according to a Canadian Federation of Independent Business survey of 3,148 members.

Out of 14 sectors surveyed, operators in hospitality and transportation were among the most pessimistic about the coming year. Only retail scored worse.