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Cooler weather and rain are bringing hope to the small Alberta town of Jasper that wildfires there can soon be brought under control and the iconic tourist hub can begin to recover.
But as Canada faces another A year of above-normal wildfire activitymany in the tourism industry are asking if it’s worth it.
“It’s really a gamble to be in the tourism industry right now,” said Mandy Nordahn, owner of Mearas Vista Inn in Tofino, B.C.
Nordan said the 2023 wildfire season will be unlike any other in the past, and government data backs her up.
About 18.5 million hectares of land have burned in Canada. 2023 is the worst bushfire season on record This is a record high, breaking the previous record of 7.6 million hectares affected in 1989.
Tofino, a major tourist destination in British Columbia, was also affected by last month’s fires on Vancouver Island, though it was not directly hit.
“No one’s coming,” Nordan said. “All our reservations for June have been canceled.”
Nordan thought the worst was over when she learned that news of the disaster in Jasper had once again caused panic among potential visitors.
“I’ve already had people calling to tell me they can’t come. It’s going to affect business, but you can’t really blame people,” she said.
The extent of Jasper’s damage will take some time to be known, but officials estimate 30% and 50% of all structures All the buildings in the town were probably destroyed in the fire.
This could include many years of hotels, hostels, inns, restaurants and cafes.
Beth Porter, CEO of the Tourism Industry Association of Canada climate change The increased frequency of extreme weather events is now factored into business operations.
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“As an industry, we have spent a lot of time and effort over the past few years developing emergency preparedness plans so that we can ensure the safety of our visitors,” she told Global News.
“This is now part of our standard business process.”
The stakes are high. The tourism industry is expected to generate $113 billion in revenue in 2023 and supports one in 10 jobs in Canada, according to the Tourism Industry Association of Canada.
“We have operations in every part of the country, in every constituency,” Porter said.
Wildfires already cost Canadians hundreds of millions of dollars each year. One of the most expensive weather events in Canadian history is wildfire. The Okanagan and Shuswap wildfires in British Columbia from August to September last year caused $720 million in damages, according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada.
Last year, wildfires in Tantallon, Nova Scotia, caused more than $165 million in damages.
“The cost of these events is enormous and given the extreme events that are occurring, it will have a significant impact on everything from the cost of rebuilding to the cost of insurance for these businesses,” Porter said.
However, she added that in addition to the costs of such weather events, news of extreme weather events making headlines around the world is also sending shockwaves through the industry. The ripple effects of such news, she said, could extend beyond the affected regions.
“They (international tourists) don’t understand that if there’s a fire in one part of our country, the rest of our country is still open for business,” she said.
“We still have some work to do to make sure the world knows that Canada remains the destination for summer vacations and summer business events and corporate travel this year.”
It’s not just wildfires. Climate change means Canada’s winter sports industry faces an uncertain future. A report last June predicted that Canadian ski resorts would have to close 10,000 ski resorts in 2019. Increasing reliance on machine snowmaking.
“The results show that snowmaking demand (how deep snow is made by machines) will increase from baseline levels by the 2050s in all regional markets and under all climate change scenarios,” the report reads.
Porter said warmer weather was forcing the industry to diversify.
“What it’s causing the industry to do is look at our products, our experiences, look at the seasonality of our industry throughout the year and do things differently,” she said.
That could mean leveraging Canada’s geographic diversity to expand tourism hubs outside of particularly vulnerable areas. But it could also mean diversifying the products or services the tourism industry offers.
“We can look at our winter product differently. We can attract tourists at different times of the year and spread tourism over more months of the year,” she said.
Nordan of Tofino hopes that tourist centers like her town can become more resilient to disasters.
“You want people to enjoy their vacation and not worry about being stranded,” she said.
Porter said all levels of government needed to have these conversations and while there were steps the government could take to help, there were also steps the industry could take.
“We can make changes. We can adapt,” she said.
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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