As the summer winds down, it’s an opportune time for a ‘health check’ on the tourism industry, one of B.C.’s biggest employers and – in normal times — a vital source of export earnings. Globally, the seemingly endless COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc with tourism. No industry has been hit harder by the virus. The economic and human cost has been significant.
From a Canada-wide perspective, the period since early 2020 has seen unprecedented declines in most tourism-related performance indicators. International visitor arrivals are down by 85 per cent. Airline industry revenues have plunged by roughly 90 per cent.
No cruise ships have docked at Canadian ports-of-call in the last 18 months. In-person conventions, trade shows, conferences, festivals, fairs and exhibitions have largely disappeared. Travel to and within Canada for business meetings has shriveled to almost nothing. The overall result is that some 500,000 jobs have been lost in industries that are…
