N.S. Tourism Industry Losing Money With Border Restriction: ‘They’re Doing Damage By The Day’
HALIFAX – The tourism and hospitality industry has waited patiently for Nova Scotia borders to open this summer, after a year of financial hardship and frustration.
Ahead of June 23, the original date for the new Atlantic Bubble, hotels and tourism businesses took many reservations from would-be travelers. But then Premier Iain Rankin announced on June 22 that border restrictions would remain with anyone travelling to and from New Brunswick; all of a sudden, those travelers were calling to cancel.
Rankin said government had no choice but to impose restrictions because New Brunswick opened up its borders to the rest of Canada ahead of the Atlantic Bubble, posing a health risk. But many in the business community was caught off guard by the timing of the announcement.
This proved to be another financial hit for an industry that has lost more than $1.8-billion in revenues because of Covid-19.
“And here we thought was going to be our real opportunity-the start of a long road to recovery, just to have mass cancellations because of the new restrictions put into place for New Brunswick, and the requirement to quarantine for the rest of Canada,” said Megan Delaney, president of the Hotel Association of Nova Scotia.
“(The Atlantic Bubble) is really all we had, besides travel from within Nova Scotia…which is not enough to sustain our business in the short or the long term. There are not enough people in Nova Scotia to do that.”
Jeff Ransome is the general manager of Halifax Marriott Harbourfront Hotel. Less than 24 hours after Rankin’s unexpected announcement, he had 10 percent of reservations cancelled, and is expecting to lose more business because of it.
“What I’ve seen take place is cancellations at the hotel,” he said. “I question, just as somebody that’s trying to operate a business, how we’re expected to get through this with these last-minute changes.”
Ransome notes that tourists from New Brunswick and in Canada aren’t going to want to spend any precious vacation time in isolation awaiting a negative test result. This will mean much less business for tourism and hotel operators until Nova Scotia is fully reopened on June 30.
“When you start saying that anywhere from 20 to 40 percent or 60 percent, frankly, of their vacation time has to be spent in self-isolation awaiting a PCR test – that’s a nonstarter.”
For Ransome, the whole situation just adds to the feeling of helplessness and frustration that has existed since the beginning of the pandemic.
“Firstly, I felt helpless when dealing with the actual pandemic of Covid-19, but now I actually feel helpless in trying to find out how we plan on navigating the final 10 yards of this better.”
Delaney is also concerned that the Nova Scotia operators will lose business to New Brunswick since that province is already opening its borders to Canadian tourists.
“Right now, it’s a competition and, unfortunately, with the opening strategy of New Brunswick, they’re attracting people to their province,” said Delaney.
The HANS president says the mood right now in the industry is understandably low.
“We’re frustrated and we’re sad; it’s been a really long road for the tourism industry, and we’ve tried really hard to work closely and be supportive of the provincial government overall. We supported when they had to shut things down for the greater good of Nova Scotia.”
“The ray of hope was always the vaccine. And the fact that even now with the vaccine we haven’t been given that freedom of movement for people to be able to travel and spend money at our businesses is absolutely devastating and it’s going to have long term effects on a lot of businesses in Nova Scotia.”
For some, waiting an extra week for borders to reopen (with certain conditions), isn’t that long. However, says Delaney, an estimated $30-million a week is spent in Halifax alone during peak tourism season.
Dennis Campbell, the CEO of Ambassatours Gray Line said he too was getting cancellations “by the hour” not long after the New Brunswick border announcement. Last year, because of the pandemic, Ambassatours lost $4-million and took on $3-million in debt. Campbell was hoping for a better start to the 2021 tourism season.
“Last year we were down 90 percent (in business). This year we were hoping we’d have a little bit of bright light and start to see the Atlantic Bubble open sooner, and the region open to Canada sooner,” said Campbell.
“We’re already starting to get cancellations; it’s so heartbreaking and frustrating to watch that happen.”
The Ambassatours CEO is frustrated that political squabbling is having a huge economic impact on the province. He believes Rankin and Higgs should “put politics aside” and work together on reopening.
“Surely, between our two premiers, they could find some sort of common ground here; not start a war against each other,” said Campbell. I never imagined in my lifetime I’d see the Premier of Nova Scotia and the Premier of New Brunswick play this type of politics at the expense of the small business community.”
Campbell notes that the tourism sector needs a level of certainty in order to operate successfully since travelers always plan their vacation days well in advance. This border situation has done the exact opposite.
“There is pent-up demand, but the demand can’t be met without some certainty and, right now, our provincial governments are creating tremendous uncertainty. They’re doing damage by the day,” explains Campbell.
“The tourism industry just keeps getting hit; the industry just can’t take much more.”