OTTAWA -- The COVID-19 pandemic has cost Ottawa's tourism industry $2.6 billion, the head of Ottawa Tourism said Thursday, warning it will take years for the sector to fully recover.
With Premier Doug Ford set to unveil Ontario's reopening plan Thursday afternoon, Ottawa Tourism President Michael Crockatt expects that recovery will begin with a focus on staycations and regional travel.
"The necessity of being able to move around is certainly going to be a prerequisite for a full recovery of the tourism sector,” Crockatt said on CTV Morning Live. “We will need people to be able to move within the province and hopefully from other provinces to our province as well.
"We do expect it probably to start a little more local and a little more regional, but hopefully governments will see that operators of the tourism industry, businesses are able to operate very, very safely, follow all the rules and protocols and put in place a system that's going to be attractive for people to be able to move around within the province as soon as possible."
Solicitor General Sylvia Jones suggested Wednesday that Ontario will move away from the regional reopening approach that was used during the first two lockdowns, and implement a "sector-by-sector" reopening strategy.
Crockatt is hoping Ontario will clarify the rules for travel and reopening businesses.
"I think there's some reasons for cautious optimism. This industry has been so hard hit, the tourism industry, for so long now that any indicators that we're going to be able to get up and running I think is really positive," said Crockatt.
"We're hoping that there's some clarity on what the rules of engagement will be for the various parts of the tourism industry, and hopefully as soon and as safely as possible."
The May long weekend is considered the unofficial kickoff of summer in the capital, with the Rideau Canal usually opening for the boating season and the Canadian Tulip Festival continuing. But due to the stay-at-home order this year, the canal locks remain closed and the tulip festival is continuing online.
Crockatt says the stay-at-home order and businesses remaining closed is causing tourism losses to go "higher and higher."
"For 2020-2021, those two years right now our best estimate is that we're looking at about $2.6 billion of lost visitor spending in our community," said Crockatt.
"So that's a huge negative impact to all those businesses and employees who are normally working in the tourism sector. Normally, 43,000 people are making their living in the tourism sector in Ottawa, and you can see just how devastating that's been this year."
Crockatt says things getting back to normal for the visitor economy will mean different things for different sectors, with meetings and conventions taking longer to recover because it takes years to plan.
Still, Crockatt is optimistic people will begin to travel as the restrictions are lifted.
"I think there's pent-up demand for travel, so I think we will see some leisure travel bouncing back as soon as people are allowed to travel again depending on what the geographical restrictions on that are," said Crockatt.
"The most up to date forecast that we have are saying it's still going to be years before the full tourism economy gets back to what it was in 2019, so we have a long road ahead for sure but we're ready for it."
