The Vice-President of global marketing for Destination BC painted a grim picture where the worst-case scenario could see the tourism sector lose upwards of 19-billion dollars if domestic travel doesn’t resume until March of next year.
However, Maya Lange stated the domestic market would be the quickest to rebound, especially in the north.
“The domestic market probably provides the biggest opportunity for an immediate return and that’s where I think Northern British Columbia has so much to offer as the communities in and around Prince George have so much to benefit by domestic travellers.”
In 2019, the sector generated about $21.5 billion last year with the north receiving a healthy share of the market.
“With the 23-million trips that were taken to or within British Columbia by both the domestic and international markets, Northern British Columbia represents about five per cent of the provincial overnight visitation and about four per cent of the related spending.”
“With the restrictions in place and people not being able to travel outside of their communities, places like Prince George, which are the hub of Northern British Columbia will be significantly impacted as well,” said Lange.
Furthermore, the tourism sector employs roughly 166,000, many of which, are small businesses who rely on the tourist dollar during the summer season.
“Ninety per cent of the industry have less than 50 employees and these are the businesses that are going to be the hardest hit.”
Tourism PG CEO, Tracey McBride explained how much revenue has been lost when it comes to sports tourism.
“We have a lost about 12.7 million dollars in economic impact and that’s approximately 21,000 hotel rooms lost.”
McBride added other facilities like the PG Conference and Civic Centre are also feeling the pinch.
“The Prince George Conference and Civic Centre from March 17th to the June 16th period, right now we’re looking at about 47 events lost and the delegates spent is approximately just under half a million.”
“Non-delegate days is about 6,400 (lost) and the economic impact that it’s tracking is about five million.”
McBride states there are a lot of people still dreaming and planning to travel abroad, it’s just a matter of when travel restrictions lessen, there is pent up demand for China and the United Kingdom.
She adds regional could see a spike as people will want to see friends and relatives, which could bode well for Northern BC.