By: Brad Parsell, Fernie Chamber of Commerce and Jikke Gyorki, Tourism Fernie
This week is Tourism Week across Canada and it comes at a time when the global tourism industry has been brought to its knees by the COVID-19 pandemic. For Fernie, tourism brings in $150 million annually in visitor spending and represents one of the community’s key economic drivers. In mid March, Fernie reacted in accordance with provincial health directives to slow the spread of the coronavirus by shutting down our local tourism industry almost overnight. Occupancy levels and revenues immediately decreased to approximately 10 per cent of normal at a time when tourism in Fernie was in its second strongest month of the year. Most if not all restaurants, cafes, pubs, shops, and activity providers ceased operations and all current visitors quickly went back home leaving local accommodators mostly empty. Those with future bookings to Fernie began cancelling or rescheduling their trips.
Tourism Fernie, the Fernie Chamber of Commerce, the City of Fernie and local organizations are working together on recovery efforts on behalf of our community. We are assisting local businesses with information, support and tools, by advocating local needs to government, by working to keep the community safe, and by planning and executing measures to bring back tourism when ready. We encourage businesses to reach out at anytime and to communicate with us on what your reopening plans will look like.
The impacts on everyday life for all of us continue to be unprecedented and open ended. No one has a crystal ball, but the Fernie business community is working hard to adapt and be able to reanimate with everyone’s safety always top of mind. Local businesses are very aware that if customers do not feel safe interacting with their businesses, they simply will not. The amount of genuine effort business owners and managers are going through (most above and beyond the guidelines from WorkSafeBC) to be ready for our “new normal” is to be commended. Thank you for taking the time and spending the money to get it right, despite the financial hardships you continue to face.
As businesses start to reopen under restrictions, we must all support the mantra of ‘shop local’, ‘support local’, ‘be safe and kind’ and, ‘be a tourist in your own town’. As travel restrictions begin to ease, we need to welcome visitors back with our well known hospitality and exceptional experiences. In return, these visitors will support Fernie by eating in our restaurants, shopping in our stores, staying in our accommodations, partaking in the diversity of activities by local operators and sharing their quality Fernie experience with friends and family. Our local businesses need this to be sustainable and to get back on their feet. Fernie residents who work for these businesses or service these businesses need it to get back to work and bring home a proper paycheck. Our town needs it because Fernie has welcomed visitors for over 100 years and has built a successful and robust economy around tourism. We, as a community, can achieve this tourism road to recovery safely by working together.
The B.C. premier’s Restart Plan states that travel restrictions will begin to ease in phase three starting in June, if COVID-19 cases within the province continue to slow. This easing of travel restrictions will most likely happen in a phased approach with short distance regional travel first. Travel to B.C. from other provinces may be later in the summer, and the USA border may not open until fall season. Overseas travel is expected late fall or early winter, but again, there is no crystal ball to know for sure.
Fernie has welcomed Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba residents as visitors and property owners for decades. They are a significant part of our community’s social fabric and economy, and we should not lose sight of that. We will welcome our out of province neighbours with open arms and strong messaging when the time is right – as determined by provincial health directives.
How does the tourism industry plan recovery in such an unknown world? It is a challenge, and we can only work with the information and tools that are accessible. We need to be diligent and nimble. We need to ensure our local community and businesses continue to receive the support they need to get through this. We need to communicate to all levels of government what we are seeing and hearing about our challenges and opportunities. The next steps forward will be a mix of strategic thinking and operation, flexibility, collaboration, empathy and agility. Before COVID-19, Fernie’s tourism vision was to be “a vibrant and sustainable tourism destination built on respect, collaboration, and authenticity.” Today this vision is still pertinent as we rebuild a vibrant and sustainable industry under the same guiding principles.
Both Tourism Fernie and the Fernie Chamber of Commerce welcome any feedback or questions any time. You can reach us at the Fernie Visitor Centre east of town or emailing Jikke at jikke@tourismfernie.com or Brad at brad@ferniechamber.com.
editor@thefreepress.ca
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