PENTICTON — It’s the first time since 2004 that the loonie has closed below the 75-cent mark. This low dollar may be bad news for Canadians wanting to travel south, but it’s good news for Okanagan tourism.
Tourism Penticton says more visitors are choosing to come to Penticton instead of the States.
Dino Dean, the owner of Grape Escapes Wine Tours, says he’s noticed more visitors from nearby coming to Penticton.
“We’ve also found that a lot of locals have done what we call “staycations” and stayed closer to home. So we’re getting a lot of guests coming from other spots in the valley, such as Kamloops and within the interior of B.C.,” says Dean.
On the flip side, the weak Canadian dollar means Americans have more buying power here.
While there’s been an increase in tourists from south of the border, it hasn’t been as great as some businesses had anticipated.
“We definitely have had a little uptick on the U.S. travelers, but we still have a long ways to go. It’s surprising that there aren’t way more than there are,” says Gordon Ferguson, the general manager of the local Ramada Inn.
Stirling says research needs to be done to learn why there aren’t more American tourists.
Albertans, on the other hand, continue to boost tourism numbers despite their province’s slumping economy.
“We were concerned at first, not knowing the Alberta economy, but with the price of gas so low early in the summer, we got a lot of traffic from Alberta,” says Ferguson.
Tourism Penticton says this summer is on track to being the best tourism year since the recession began in 2007.
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