Four winery-related businesses in Penticton were forced to temporarily close on Saturday due to a road closure related to the Multisport World Championships.
Downtown Penticton has been transformed into a triathlon mecca.
The south Okanagan city is hosting the first-ever competition of its kind as athletes compete for six triathlon-style racing titles.
“This is an enormous event, there are three-and-a-half thousand athletes, eight to ten thousand visitors in total coming to Penticton,” said spokesperson Darren Hailes.
But with any massive event comes massive disruption.
Poplar Grove Winery, Monster Vineyards, and its restaurant were forced to close on Saturday because Middle Bench Road was closed for a race.
“I definitely have an idea of what that loss is and I can tell you it’s significant,” said General Manager Jacquie Carlson.
Carlson said 23 staff members also lost wages and tips.
“It’s counter-productive if we have to close our business and we lose revenue and we lose wages to bring these people and trying to increase the economy of the City of Penticton,” she said.
Carlson said she received an impersonal notification of the road closure through a flyer placed in the gate, “which is difficult for us to manage our business when that is the amount of communication we receive.”
Three Sisters Winery on Munson Road was also forced to shut their doors with little notice.
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“Definitely a revenue loss to close for a full day on a Saturday in the summer,” said owner Rebecca Lawrence.
Race organizers told Global News on Monday that they did their best to keep the public informed and that the disruption will be worth it.
“Overall we think the economic impact of this event is somewhere in the region of eight to ten million dollars to the city, so lots of money coming through, lots of heads in beds, restaurants are full,” Hailes said.
Peter Weeber, the city’s Chief Administrative Officer, said better planning will go into hosting large-scale events in the future.
“We think we can do better, so we are going to do better.”
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