COVID 19
The content provided to the right and the following few pages is specific to tourism, PRE-COVID.
Why keep it?
Tourism’ s significance continues before, during and post-COVID.
Understanding where it was before the pandemic is important in understanding how and where to recover back to.
Tourism is one of the most historic and resilient industries in the world and has always rebounded from crisis, albeit with changes.
Data is still coming in on the effects of the pandemic, including new trends, insights and priorities.
SITUATION ANALYSIS & KEY INSIGHTS
TOURISM SIGNIFICANCE
Globally, tourism in 2018 represented 10 % of the world’ s GDP with visitor spending calculated at $ 1.7 trillion. Nationally, tourism is 2 % of Canada’ s GDP with visitor spending in 2019 at $ 105 billion, of which 22 % is from international travellers and 78 % from Canadians travelling within Canada. Over 115 million visitors travelled to or within Canada. Over 1.8 million Canadians are employed in the tourism sector.
Provincially, in 2018, tourism contributed more to the GDP than any other primary resource industry. In 2018 over 21.6 million overnight visitors travelled to and within British Columbia. In 2018, tourism directly employed 161,500 people, generated over $ 20.5 billion in revenue and contributed $ 1.7 billion in tax revenues to BC. In turn, the tourism businesses and visitors invest in local suppliers of goods and services, including technology, agricultural products, hospitality and household items, vehicles, professional services and others. For every $ 100 million in tourism revenue, it is estimated that there is a further $ 69 million in economic spin-off. The sector makes a significant contribution to the BC economy and job base as the third largest employer in the province.
Within the Kootenay Rockies region visitor spending in 2014 was $ 777 million and represented over 11 % of the province’ s overnight visitors. Over 20 % of visitors to the region are international. One area to highlight is the snowmobiling tourism sector which brings in over $ 69 million in revenues into the region.
In Fernie, visitor spending in 2015 was calculated at over $ 100 million with annual visitation at over 307,000 of which the leisure visitors are an estimated 20 % international and 50 +% Albertan. Visitors to Fernie have an average spend of $ 580 per overnight visitor and an average length of stay of 3.4 nights. Overnight visitors represent 53 % of all visitors, but represent 87 % of the spending compared to same day visitors who account for 47 % of the visitors and only 13 % of spending. For the fly-fishing sector of Fernie’ s tourism economy, each visiting‘ guided’ angler spends over $ 700 / day resulting in over $ 2.7 million dollars in spending annually in Fernie alone.
By 2018, Fernie’ s tourism lodging revenues increased by 33 %. At the end of 2018 the MRDT Hotel Tax in BC began collection by AirBnb and any accommodations of under 4 units; both were previously exempt from collecting the tax. In 2019, lodging revenues in Fernie surpassed $ 25 million. The full impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated travel restrictions are yet to be fully realized, however, most accommodations faced dramatic and unprecedented declines, if not closures, starting the middle of March 2020.