Ottawa Tourism urging residents to put out the welcome mat this summer

Ottawa's beleaguered tourism industry is hoping that with more and more Canadians getting vaccinatedagainst COVID-19, some of them might want to come visit the National Capital Region later this year.

"We are cautiously optimistic," saidOttawa Tourism spokesperson Jantine Van Kregten.

Van Kregten said after several false starts, the industry is eager to welcome back visitorsonce travel restrictions are finally relaxed, and is urging residents to extend that invitation to their friends and relatives once it's safe to do so.

When restrictions lift, we all have a role to play in helping the tourism industry rebound.- Jantine Van Kregten, Ottawa Tourism

"We all want to travel. I want to go and see friends and relatives elsewhere. Do that, but also invite other friends and relatives here, and you'll play a rolein helping your neighbours," she said.

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Van Kregtensaid the local tourism industry employed 43,000 people in 2019, and while many of those jobs have lain dormant during the pandemic, they'llreturnif the visitors do.

"When restrictions lift, we all have a role to play in helping the tourism industry rebound," she said. "We need help to weather this storm."

Recovery could take years

With no international flights arriving at Ottawa's airport anytime soon, Outaouais Tourism president Julie Kinnearsaid her team is focusing onconvincingvisitors from Montreal and Toronto to choose this region for theirsummer or fall getaway, as long as restrictions allow.

"The competition is fierce. We're all trying to get that local tourist to come," Kinnear said.

But Steven Ball, president of the Ottawa Gatineau Hotel Association, warns that unless the region's attractions reopen fully, there's little chance of that happening.

"People don't travel to stay in accommodation, they travel to experience a destination," Ball said.

Before anyone books a trip to the National Capital Region, they'll want to be assured the restaurants, museums, festivals and shops are open for business, he said.

Full tourism recovery in Ottawa likely to take years, not months

4 years ago

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Jantine Van Kregten, spokesperson for Ottawa Tourism, says regional travel may pick up this summer but other big events and conferences still arent taking place and likely wont bring tourism back to pre-pandemic levels for years.

Ball pointed out that the summer tourists who come to seethe Parliament Buildings andstroll through the National Gallery are only a drop in Ottawa's tourism bucket. Traditionally, the hotelsector makes its money in the fall, when the capital is flooded with delegates here for conventions or multi-day government meetings.

Not only are there no such gatherings on the books for this fall, Ball said analysts have warned him not to expect any meaningful revenue from those sourcesuntil 2023at the earliest, and perhaps not until 2025.