Tourism PG CEO Tracey McBride is looking forward to the day out-of-province and international travellers find their way back to the northern capital.
Under the BC reopening plan, provincial travel restrictions could be lifted as early as June 15th, provided, vaccinations and case counts related to COVID-19 reach their desired targets.
In addition, local residents could host friends or family from out of the province as early as July 1st.
McBride told the increased foot traffic would provide a major boost for local businesses.
“It’s not that you can’t make your money off the domestic travellers but every international or US traveller usually spends about three times more so that really can make or break a business.”
“A lot of our businesses have been hanging on tooth and nail trying to find the funding and adapt to more domestic travel and I think across the province especially those destinations and tourist operators that really rely on American or international travellers this is critically important.”
Explanation on Offices & Workplace as well as businesses: pic.twitter.com/jyt14T1yAm
— Francoise Dione (@dione_wearmouth) May 25, 2021
McBride was also quick to point out the pandemic has been unforgiving on all of our hotels.
“We lost at least 44,000 room nights and that is just from tournaments and conferences that we had already had committed but that doesn’t include losses that we could have received.”
Tourism PG is celebrating Tourism Week across Canada.
Prior to COVID-19, tourism in Canada was a $105 billion sector, accounted for 2% of Canada’s GDP and employed approximately 1.8 million people, according to the Tourism Industry of Canada.
The Northern BC Tourism Association surveyed regional operators and found last month, 31% of businesses were temporarily closed due to the pandemic and 44% of businesses were operating with a reduction in hours, staff, and/or services.
Something going on in the Prince George area you think people should know about?
Send us a news tip by emailing [email protected].
