C-19 BULLETIN - August 10, 2020

Former Tourism Vancouver President & CEO Rick Antonson Op-Ed:
Immediate Financial Assistance Needed to Save BC Tourism Sector

Let’s talk about 2023. That’s the year British Columbia’s tourism industry could be fully recovered. To make it so, government must act today.

No surprise, BC’s 2020 tourism industry is in the tank. One estimate is a 69-per-cent decline in tourism revenues from 2019. It will be difficult to regain the sustainable tourism industry we once took for granted.

We want our visitors back.

We need airplanes in the skies, trains on their tracks, conventioneers convening, cruise ships in the passage, restaurants fully open, and visitor attractions humming with happy tourists, locals included.

A viable 2023 envisions a return to our 19,300 working businesses in the tourism sector, ensuring 160,000 direct jobs, all generated by $21.5 billion in visitor spending. That provides $4.5 billion in tax revenues each year across all levels of government.

To achieve that, we need a return of six million overnight international visitor arrivals.

Of course, we would all wish 2021 to be the year of full recovery. It’s not going to happen.
Even if the COVID-19 crisis abates on a favourable timeline and borders safely open, people around the world will need to find the willingness, money, time, freedom and personal priority to travel again.

Yet, the stepping stone year of 2021 could see a huge increase in visitors to BC, with their spending and resulting jobs for British Columbians. If we act now.

And 2022 could see continued growth of foreign visitors, if we do the right things soon to build toward that.

We used to say, “Most people in tourism don’t know they’re in tourism.” Now, educated by COVID-19, everyone knows the damage of a tourism downturn. If a hotel is empty, no one’s needed to clean rooms, do the laundry, fix the furnace, paint the building or pave the street out front.

You know the story of hospitality: If a restaurant is closed, no one needs the food supply chain. Not the fishers or delivery truck drivers. Not waiters or cooks, or someone to buss tables. No taxi drivers or those repairing refrigeration units.

Here’s a hard question with an easy answer: What’s the impact on local jobs and employee spending when there are no vehicles with American licence plates filling up at our gas stations around the province?

We could describe a thriving BC tourism year in 2023 like this: In January 2023, businesses around the province have plenty of advance bookings for the year ahead, with deposits already paid. There is strong consumer confidence that travellers will have the funds and opportunities for weekend and weeks-long vacations in the coming 12 months. Tourism businesses around the province offer year-round employment with seasonal bumps for ski and summer destinations.

That is what it was like in January 2020. That is what it could be like in January 2023 if the provincial government delivers on three things right now:

• a strategic investment of $680 million to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on our visitor economy, and reposition businesses for a future of job creation and service delivery;
• provision of working capital recovery grants aimed at 2020 through 2022;
• support funding for communities, businesses and associations to adapt marketing and visitor servicing to the new world of hospitality and tourism.

There is no short cut. Even with this financial assistance, it’s a long journey ahead.

The immense benefits of a healthy, viable, sustainable tourism industry are economic, social, cultural and environmental. The positive impact on city, rural and Indigenous communities is well documented. We must make it happen, again.

We need short-term action for long-term benefits.

It’s all in the recovery. Act now.

Rick Antonson served as the president and CEO of Tourism Vancouver for over 21 years, and was former chair, Destination Marketing Association International (based in Washington, DC). He was also Executive Director of TIABC in its formative years.

Rick Antonson discussed his op-ed on CKNW radio. Listen in at:
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Pandemic Continues
to Impact Tourism Businesses

My name is Neoma Sampson. I live with my husband, Russell and we have a 28-month-old son, Timothy. I grew up in the Nass Valley and after I met my husband, moved here when I was 21. My husband was actually born on the Stikine River, and has lived here his entire life.  

I am the owner of Hyland Creek Bed and Breakfast. We are a fairly new bed and breakfast. This would be our fourth summer operating and is our main source of income. 

We live 4.5 kilometres past Telegraph Creek in Northern BC on a 98-acre homestead. The tourist season is fairly seasonal here, with more tourists coming here in the spring, summer and fall months.  We would say several hundred tourists come into Telegraph Creek every summer and many stay with us.  We are actually open year-round and get more workers and the odd tourists in the winter months. 

Living in the remote area where we do, sometimes it can be hard to find work without having to go to a camp for two or three weeks at a time. That is one of the reasons why we started our Bed and Breakfast journey, as there was such a need for accommodation here.

We are unsure of what the future holds for our business as it seems like things are proceeding in the rest of the province (mostly) and we are getting left behind.  

Neoma Sampson
Hyland Creek B&B
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BC Tourism Providers Struggle to Stay Afloat
August 8th
Walt Judas, chief executive of the Tourism Industry Association of BC, said the problem with the federal support program is one of the key issues his group is pushing. The other, bigger one, is a request to the province for $680-million to help prevent widespread collapse during the lengthy time it will take the industry to fully recover.

Greater Victoria Jobless Rate Up Again, Hitting 11.1%
August 8th
Recovery has been slow to come to some parts of the economy, and the decimated tourism industry warns there is more bad news on the horizon.
“I expect to see hundreds of terminations from our major employers, particularly on the management side, ahead of the August 30 extension of the temporary layoff provisions,” said Destination Greater Victoria chief executive Paul Nursey
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BC Hotel Association Responds to Union Concerns

On July 29th, BCHA wrote to Premier Horgan, Hon. Harry Bains, Minister of Labour, and Hon. Lisa Beare, Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture to bring immediate and necessary attention to the growing labour concerns in the accommodation industry.

Local Unite 40 has recently voiced concerns over workers being terminated as a result of COVID-19, and is asking for government intervention regarding an extended recall period. Currently there is collective bargaining ongoing with a number of hotels across the province, which includes the master agreement, as well as individual hotel bargaining. Collective bargaining is the respected process by which to negotiate lay off terms along with other inclusions in collective agreements.

Moving temporary lay off timelines from collective bargaining to government responsibility is not supported by the BCHA. Furthermore, BCHA supports the temporary lay off extension process put in place. 

Download BCHA's letter here
Download Minister Bains' letter here
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July Labour Force Survey Results

The tourism sector added 190,000 jobs from June to July. This represented 65.1% of all the jobs that were created.

Jobs were lost (10,100) in the transportation industry group, but added in all other tourism industry groups.
·       Accommodation – 10,300
·       Food and beverage services – 110,200
·       Recreation and Entertainment – 74,600
·       Travel Services – 5,000

We still remain 363,900 jobs short of where we were in February.

More importantly, despite three months of increases, at the height of the summer season there were 557,200 fewer people employed in tourism than there were in July 2019. It is not good, but it is an improvement from June when there were 668,300 fewer people employed compared to June 2019.

This means that July employment in the tourism sector was only 75% of what it was a year prior.

The tourism unemployment rate has dropped from 25.0% to 18.7%. For comparison, the overall seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate is 11.2% (down from 11.9%). Travel services and accommodation have the highest unemployment rates at 27.2% and 25.7% respectively.
·       Food and beverage services – 17.0%
·       Recreation and Entertainment – 20.6%
·       Transportation – 14.6%

Read Hon. Michelle Mungall's, Minister of Jobs, Economic Development and Competitiveness, statement here:
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Resident Sentiment Survey Results
Wave 6 Report - July 27th

Destination BC is monitoring British Columbian’s current views on travel and tourism as well as tracking travel and tourism behaviour intentions in order to understand the impact of COVID-19 on the tourism industry.

As such, Destination BC has commissioned Insights West to conduct nine waves of research, one every two weeks, starting May 13th to track opinions and intentions and watch how results trend over time. 

Sample Highlights:

  • The level of concern to welcome visitors from BC is increasing again after seeing a small decline in concern during the previous tracking wave. 

  • Concern to welcome visitors from other parts of Canada has increased slightly after seeing a decline during a number of the tracking waves. The concern to welcome visitors from the US and other countries remains high and unchanged.

  • BC residents have similar concerns of welcoming visitors from nearby communities or elsewhere in BC regardless of gender, age or household income. Residents in Metro Vancouver are more concerned to welcome visitors from nearby communities compared to residents from Vancouver Island or ‘Rest of BC’, however, residents from Vancouver Island are more concerned to welcome visitors from elsewhere in BC compared to Metro Vancouver residents and ‘Rest of BC’.

  • Within Canada, BC residents are most concerned with welcoming visitors from Quebec (88%) and Ontario (86%), however, the level of concern has remained unchanged. Increased concern to welcome visitors from Alberta (77%, up from 65% from Wave 5) and Saskatchewan (61%, up from 55%) is seen. 

  • In Wave 6, BC resident’s comfort level has declined for a number of tourism-related activities, for example visiting a beach, visiting an outdoor tourist destination, and visiting an indoor tourism destination. 

  • BC residents’ level of comfort to travel by car/RV and ferry in the next few weeks remain unchanged since Wave 5, however, comfort to travel by plane or take a cruise remains low and has declined further. 

Download the full report here.
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BC Weekly Domestic Overnight Visitor Insights
February 4 - July 26 2020

The Measuring Canadian Travel Patterns dashboard created by Environics Analytics helps the Canadian travel and tourism industry understand the impact of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic as it relates to Domestic Overnight Visitors within Canada, its provinces, territories, and tourism regions.

The dashboard compares visitors travel patterns (to prior weeks in 2020 and year over year 2019), as well as compares different regions to assess the impact of the pandemic on Canadian travel patterns and identify when visitors start to return to BC's respective tourism regions.

Key Findings
Note: British Columbia declared a provincial state-of-emergency on Wednesday, March 18th.

The week of April 19th (Week 11) saw the largest drop in domestic overnight visitors in British Columbia, dropping 81% from the previous year. Findings are consistent across all BC sub-regions.

While Overnight travel is significantly down compared to 2019, an upward trend in movement and overnight stays on a week over week bases was apparent during Weeks 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 20, 22, 24 and 25.

The Kootenay Rockies, Northern BC and Vancouver Island saw an increase in visitation from Week 24 (July 13-19) to Week 25 (July 20- 26), the Thompson Okanagan, Cariboo Chilcotin Coast and Vancouver Coast and Mountains saw a decrease.

The Cariboo Chilcotin Coast and Northern BC saw an increase in visitation over British Columbia during Week 25 (July 20-26).

The Thompson Okanagan, Kootenay Rockies, Vancouver Island and Vancouver Coast and Mountains saw a decrease in visitation compared to BC during Week 25 (July 20- 26).

Download the full report here.
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Destination BC's Health & Safety Grants for BC's Visitor Centres

Many of BC’s community visitor centres are re-opening to assist British Columbians as they begin to explore our beautiful province. In late May, Destination BC distributed a one-time health and safety grant to members of the Visitor Services Network Program to ensure physical distancing and heightened sanitation measures within their facilities.

These grants have gone a long way in helping visitor centres across the province reopen safely so that visitors, staff, and volunteers feel comfortable interacting with others. Last year, community visitor centres served over 2.9 million visitors at their physical locations and around their communities—it’s important that they can continue to provide travellers with information.

So far, 70 visitor centre members have submitted their grant application to support the implementation of health and safety measures. Safety measures implemented include: physical distancing floor decals, plexiglass separation panels for their counter, personal protective equipment, signage, sanitation stations, and more.
Plexiglass separation at the Powell River Visitor Centre
Physical Distancing floor decals at the Chilliwack Visitor Centre
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Industry on the Move
Val Litwin Leaving BC Chamber of Commerce

The BC Chamber of Commerce has announced that Val Litwin, CEO for the previous four years, will step down from the organization on August 28th. 

“The positive transformation the organization has undergone during Val’s tenure has been impressive,” said Aleece Laird, Board Chair of the BCCC. “In his four years as CEO, the organization repositioned our brand to ‘know what’s on BC’s mind’ and launched a best-in-class insight platform that is changing how we deliver value for our members, our partners, and government. More recently, during the pandemic – and in lockstep with our local chambers, boards of trade, and other association partners – Val and the organization led the BC business community to some historic policy wins that helped save thousands of small businesses and good paying jobs for British Columbians. We thank him for the tone he has set in our network and in the community.”

TIABC has enjoyed a strong relationship with Val and the BC Chamber for many years. His support of our sector and the partnership we've enjoyed is a direct result of Val's leadership, as well as his commitment and passion for BC's visitor economy. On behalf of the staff, board and membership of TIABC, we thank Val for his outstanding contribution and wish him well in his future endeavours.
Krista Bax Appointed to Tourism HR Canada Board of Directors

Tourism HR Canada recently announced the appointment of Krista Bax, CEO of go2HR to its Board of Directors.

Krista brings a wealth of experience from other industries in crisis to tourism’s short and long-term workforce recovery efforts.

She and other directors will help guide the organization in fulfilling its mandate to build a world-leading tourism workforce and offer leadership as it supports the hard-hit sector in recovering and building resiliency in the face of COVID-19.
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Small Business BC Webinar

During COVID-19, business owners have been looking at different ways to cut costs and become more efficient. What if it was possible to achieve this goal while helping to reduce transmission of COVID-19 at the same time?

Delivered by Sam Thomas, Principal and Kootenay Branch Manager of Prism Engineering, and Tiago Pereira, Energy Solutions Manager at FortisBC, attendees will learn practical steps for making the workplace safer, while also saving money in our “new normal.” We’ll also be covering tips for making your space cost-effective, COVID relief incentives for small biz and plumbing/environmental controls.

What Will I Learn?
Best practices in HVAC and safety during COVID-19 reopening
How to develop a pandemic response plan
Steps to prepare your business for a potential second wave
Identifying opportunities for increased energy efficiency in your business
Available rebates and energy saving resources from Fortis BC

Wednesday September 2nd @ 10:00am (PT)

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****NOTE: TIABC's C-19 Bulletin is now published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Feel free to send us your ideas on what information would be valuable for TIABC to share through our COVID-19 Bulletin going forward. Drop us a line at info@tiabc.ca.