While the exact impact isn’t known, the 2017 flood and fire season did affect the Okanagan’s tourism industry.
“The impact is tough to measure right now,” Tourism Kelowna CEO Lisanne Ballantyne told Global News.
“There are studies going on right now that will deliver some measurables and some actual numbers but we can tell just anecdotally from the 380 businesses that we represent that it did impact them.”
Andre Thomas owns the Memphis Blues Barbecue House on Bernard Avenue. He told Global News that in the 11 years he’s owned the restaurant, 2017 was his worst year financially.
“It had a huge impact, a negative impact,” he said. “We saw about a 20 per cent decrease in business.”
Pavneet Singh, who owns Pita Pit and Fresh Slice Pizza in downtown Kelowna, said business was down too.
“A lot of people were scared coming with the families with the kids, it did impact for sure,” he said.
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Calling it a challenging season, Ballantyne said Tourism Kelowna is better prepared this time around in the event of another bad flood and fire season.
“We learned a lot of lessons as a community last year and we are taking a different approach this year,” she said.
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Improvements include a better way to keep tourists informed so that people are not misled that the entire valley is under water or smoked out when it is only certain areas affected.
“The first thing is already up on our website at TourismKelowna.com and that is a weekly outlook clearly explaining to people what the weather situation is right here in this area,” Ballantyne said. “What happened last year is the message was too broad and it leaked out to the rest of Canada when really it was very situational.”
A better communication plan between Tourism Kelowna and emergency operations has also now been implemented.
“By being part of their group, we know who to contact, when to contact,” Ballantyne said. “We have a communications plan that will help us…be able to get the messaging out in advance and we know what kind of content has to go out in advance now.”
Ballantyne also said that the community at large can help spread the word that just because a fire may be burning, does not mean Kelowna is closed for business.
“What we need to do not only as a tourism organization but for all of us on social media talking with our friends and family is to be ready to talk about what good things are talking about in the area,” she said.
Business owners are cautiously optimistic heading into this year’s tourism season hoping there’s no lingering effect from last year’s dismal season.
“Maybe the people…that are coming in might say, you know what, we were there last year, it kind of sucked, we might not show up again this year so I am hoping that is not the case,” Moolix Ice Cream owner Lionel St. Pierre said.
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