Re-opening is not Recovery

On March 1st the tourism industry in Ontario reached an important COVID-19 milestone. While re-opening brings with it a sense of normality, there are still some significant barriers to overcome. Tourism was the first industry hit by the pandemic, it was the hardest hit, and it will be the last to recover. Prior to COVID-19, tourism was responsible for one in ten jobs in Canada and generated $105 billion in annual tourism spending. A mere year later, tourism spending dropped by half to 53B. It is expected that Canada won’t start to regain its 2019 numbers until 2026. In Waterloo Region, where we rely mainly on visitors from within Ontario, we are in a much better position with recovery expected to happen by 2024.

Waterloo Region tourism businesses all deserve significant praise for how they adapted to new business models due to ever-changing restrictions. Safety protocols ensured healthy visitors. Explore Waterloo Region and RT04 were pleased to announce over $590,000 was issued to hotels, attractions and other operators to offset costs associated with retrofits for COVID health requirements through the Tourism Adaptation and Recovery Program (TARP). We are well-aware as business ramps up, the main issue now for most businesses is that of labour shortages. Recovery hinges on our ability to attract and maintain workers across the skills spectrum. Tourism industry associations, both provincial and federal, are advocating for the federal government to create a labour strategy with a path to permanent residency. They are also lobbying to increase capacity to expedite processing of immigration applications to meet demand for a busy spring and summer season. One of our concerns at Explore Waterloo Region is that we will miss out on bidding opportunities for meetings and sporting events as hotels and venues do not have the staffing capacity to meet our response deadlines. For those visitors that do decide to travel this spring and summer, there is real potential that service levels will not meet expectation and that can cause damage to the brand.

Encouraging visitors to travel again is one of the key challenges we face as an industry in 2022. It is great news that the Federal government removed the requirement for fully vaccinated international visitors to provide a pre-arrival PCR test. The tourism industry continues to lobby government to remove all testing requirements for fully vaccinated visitors in the short-term and then when appropriate, for unvaccinated visitors, to truly make travel a seamless experience again. There is considerable pentup demand to travel in both domestic and international markets but there has never been so much competition. We need to make our region as compelling as possible. Pushing the message of safety protocols combined with creating enticing experiences that encourage people to stay longer and spend more will assist in rebuilding our industry. We are very pleased that the provincial government has created the StayCation Tax credit program that allows residents to claim 20% of the total cost of eligible accommodation booked between Jan1 and Dec31, 2022. The maximum amount that can be claimed is up to 20% of a $1000 for an individual and 20% of $2000 for a family. The tax credit is a great “valueadd” for all marketing messaging.

We at Explore Waterloo Region invite you to get out and enjoy everything the area has to offer. Be an ambassador for the region and reach out and invite your friends and relatives to visit. There are always wonderful ideas and deals on www. explorewaterloo.ca and on our social channels. There will be incredible competition for visitors this summer so let’s rally around our community and support local!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Michele Saran

Michele Saran is the new CEO of Explore Waterloo Region. She has over 30 years of experience in the Tourism industry at municipal, provincial and federal levels. Most recently she held the role of CEO of Tourism Nova Scotia

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Canada's Innovation Corridor Business Council

Four years ago Chambers of Commerce and Boards of Trade between Waterloo Region and Toronto formed the Canada's Innovation Corridor Business Council with representation from Brampton, Cambridge, Kitchener-Waterloo, Guelph, Halton Hills, Hamilton, Milton and Mississauga.

The original mandate was to optimize economic opportunities within the growing Innovation Corridor and lobby for appropriate infrastructure support most notably improved passenger rail service. The group was also active in the establishment of Next Generation Manufacturing Canada, the recipient of funding under the Super Cluster Innovation Fund to support the integration of Canadian advanced manufacturing and IT resources.

The work of the Business Council is strongly supported by many business and institutional partners and we thank them for making the Waterloo Region-Toronto Corridor a premier location for investment, research, and job creation.

Thanks to the Greater KW Chamber partners that sponsor our efforts on this important initiative.