Alberta tourism operators hope for surge, predict a trickle as border opens to overseas visitors

The Canadian border is expected to reopen today to foreign nationals who qualify for an exemption as fully-vaccinated travellers.

Tourism industry associations and hotel and attraction operators say they are ready to welcome new guests and visitors, but they have lowered their expectations of how many people will travel to the province's destination hot spots.

"It's just a little sliver of hope for the industry. We've been missing our international visitors so dearly," said Rachel Ludwig, the CEO of the Tourism Canmore Kananaskis.

The industry, which recently welcomed visitors back from the United States, has tempered its view of what to expect when other foreign nationals are allowed entry.

"The flood gates won't open, it will still be a little trickle," Ludwig said.

Ludwig says tourism operators in the Bow Valley have had an incredibly difficult time during the pandemic, with many operators buoyed by support from government programs and Albertans and other Canadians who vacationed in the area west of Calgary over the past two months.

But foreign visitors tend to spend a lot more.

Ludwig says while the averageAlbertan would spend $125 a day during a visit to the region, an international traveller would spend $300 per day revenue that vanished when international borders were sealed shut in March2020.

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Starting today, foreign nationals who are fully vaccinated and can produce a negative COVID-19 test result will be allowed to enter Canada for non-essential travel without having to quarantine or provide another test result eight days after their arrival.

"There are a few bookings here and there, for sure," said Ludwig.

"But again, it's not big numbers. Travellers need to get comfortable travelling again, right?

Could take months to see impact

David McKenna, who is the president of the Banff Jasper Collection by Pursuit, says the summer started out slowly when restrictions were eased in Alberta in early July. He says hotel occupancy at the company's properties in Banff, Jasper and the Columbia Icefieldwas between 10 and 20 per cent, but he says they were sold out toward the end of August.

The company manages 1,000 hotel rooms along with several attractions, including the Banff gondola and the Glacier Skywalk.

McKenna, who is also chair of the Tourism Industry Association of Canada, says the reopening of the Canada-U.S. border to non-essential travellers on Aug. 9, didn't result in the flood of bookings and visitors they had expected.

"We usually get quite a bit of vehicle traffic coming up from Washington or Oregon, even California, and we just didn't really see that," he said.

He says that was likely due to the poor messaging from the U.S. government regarding travel between the two countries.

McKenna predicts the impact of the border's reopening to overseas visitors won't be felt until the spring.

"Who knows exactly how it's gonna play out," he said.

"I think that the safe bet is that it'll be a very slow and gradual return," said McKenna.

He says a typical overseas traveller arriving in September or October would have booked their vacation in January.

"We're not really expecting a whole lot, but just the fact of getting the borders back open and people knowing that they can have some confidence in booking for next year, maybe even for ski bookings over the holidays in February or March," he said.

He says many tourism operators have been "decimated" by the pandemic, and some will struggle to survive through the winter.

"We just need to get to the finish line, which really looks like next spring."

Planes, trains

Officials at the Calgary airport say they're preparing for the border's reopening and are expecting more traffic this month compared with September2020.

The operators of the Rocky Mountaineer, a luxury train excursion, says it's expecting to see some visitors from the U.K. before the service ends in mid-October.

"We anticipate overall numbers will be low, but we will welcome the guests who do travel as they are an important part in the ongoing recovery for tourism," said Nicole Ford, a spokesperson for the company.

The company says weekly bookings from U.S. travellers have more than doubled since the Canada-U.S. border reopened last month, but overall, the numbers are still low compared withpre-pandemic bookings she said.

Short-staffed, industry exhausted

Caleb Pearse, 35, who works as a server and a bartender at two locations in Banff, isn't so sure the town can handle more visitors right now. He says many restaurants and bars are short-staffed, hours have been reduced and customers have faced lengthy waits just to get a table. He says it's been stressful for people in the hospitality industry.

"When it comes down to what's the best for the mental and physical health of everyone in the Bow Valley, I think it's not a good idea," said Pearse after being asked if he's looking forward to seeing more visitors.

"I don't think people can really handle anything more right now," he said.

Rising COVID cases could postpone trips

McKenna says Alberta's surging COVID-19 case numbers may also factor intotravellers' plans to visit.

"It would not inspire a lot of people to, you know, take the chance right now, he said.

But he says it's a problem a lot of places are experiencing, not just Alberta.

"I think, really, people are looking out week to week, you know, every community is having their spikes, their issues, each in its own time," he said.

"I think we're probably all worried. But on the other hand, numbers go up everywhere in the world as well," said Ludwig.

It's another hurdle as the industry adjusts to a border reopening and another round of COVID-19 restrictions recently announced by the provincial government.

Bryan Labby is an enterprise reporter with CBC Calgary. If you have a good story idea or tip, you can reach him at bryan.labby@cbc.ca or on Twitter at @CBCBryan.