The McEwan family from Alberta lathered up for a beach day in Kelowna Wednesday but this year they had to forgo the Airbnb they stayed in last year.
“The condos weren’t available,” said Albertan Dustin McEwan. “Short term rentals I suppose.”
The family opted for a hotel but it seems tourists like them aren’t coming in droves this season.
“I’m not just noticing it, I am living it,” said Wyn Lewis, owner of the Vibrant Vine Winery. “Basically we are at 60 per cent of last year.”
Lewis said a number of his wine club members have indicated that the new legislation restricting short term rentals is keeping them away.
“I think there’s, you know, unintended consequences with the recent law that was passed with the Airbnb. What we are hearing is a groundswell of people who are saying, that’s the reason why you’re empty … look around here,” he said, pointing to an empty tasting room.
Tourism Kelowna acknowledged that July appears to be softer in terms of visitation numbers compared to previous years.
“It certainly feels like it’s down a little bit,” said Lisanne Ballantyne, president and CEO of Tourism Kelowna.
But Ballantyne said with a strong June, the numbers will likely balance out.
“I think once we get our numbers in … we’re going to guess visitation might be on par with last year,” Ballantyne said.
She added that pointing the blame for a seemingly slower July solely at the new short-term rental rules doesn’t make sense.
“We’re thinking back to that incredible three weeks of heat wave we had that brought down visitation,” Ballantyne said. “Think about the fact that we had a WestJet strike. We lost some airline coverage in the middle of June that affected other people’s decisions about their July holidays. Think about the fact that we have uncertainty sometimes about what kind of sky is going to be … it’s a number of factors that influence tourism.”
B.C.’s tourism minister Lana Popham told Global News tourism is down globally, not just in Kelowna or B.C.
“We are not doing badly on the tourism front but we would absolutely like to see more traffic,” Popham said.
She said one of the most important ways to support tourism is to ensure housing is available for hospitality workers, which the new short-term rental legislation is trying to achieve.
“Trying to get people into housing so they can support the economy …. is a huge priority for the government and we’re going to see how that looks with short-term rentals.”
Ballantyne added that Tourism Kelowna will have a better idea of the type of tourism season Kelowna is experiencing when it can take a look at visitation statistics in a few weeks.