Downtown Victoria streets were relatively busy on Friday amidst a pandemic, but most of those roaming the streets are locals.
“Every time I turn around there’s just another reason as to why tourism is going to suffer. Suffer isn’t even good enough of a word, we’re being absolutely devastated,” Ian MacPhee, a board member of the Tourism Industry Association of British Columbia (TIABC).
The decimated tourism industry is facing yet another possible blow as B.C.’s premier considers banning travellers from other provinces.
“We do have challenges though when it comes to mobility within Canada, we are getting legal advice on that,” said Premier John Horgan in a press conference on Thursday.
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And while any customers are appreciated and needed, MacPhee says there haven’t actually been that many visitors from other provinces during the pandemic.
“There hasn’t been as many interprovincial travellers as perhaps we would have hoped for, they haven’t played a big enough role for companies to survive,” said the TIABC board member.
While the push to support local businesses has been strong, Destination Victoria has previously said the support from locals cannot replace the money brought in from tourists.
But local support is expected to dip this year after the pandemic forced the cancellation of the Victoria Attractions Association’s very popular “Be a Tourist in Your Hometown” program.
“It just didn’t make sense to encourage people, in large numbers, to visit these attractions that really need people to come, but not all at once, condensed over a short period of time,” said Greg Greene of the Victoria Attractions Association, who says businesses probably couldn’t afford to do it this year either.
“[Local attractions] would offer admission for free, so they weren’t making anything and this is a time when we want to support our local attractions, which we want to do but it’s just not the time to do this on a complimentary basis.”
The tourism sector says what’s really needed to survive, is funding.
In December, the province delegated $105 million towards the tourism industry, but McPhee, who also runs Prince of Whales Adventures Victoria, says that’s a drop in the bucket.
“For us, a large to medium B.C. company in terms of enterprises, that translates to $45,000, so $105 million seems like a lot of money, but it’s not at all. We’re grateful, it’s a couple of payrolls in the winter. It’s not even a payroll in the summer,” said the business owner.
More than anything, he says they need people coming to Victoria on a large scale and to do that, the pandemic needs to be over.
“I hope the government can focus on maximum vaccine distribution effectively and safely and as quickly as possible. Nothing is going to fix this problem until people start to travel again,” said MacPhee.
Rebecca Lawrence
