Ottawa’s tourism and festival industry leaders are hoping an exclusive concert series broadcast in local hotels will draw residents in for a night of music, comedy and support for a hospitality sector hamstrung by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Room Service concert series will see eight nights of performances streamed through rooms at 20 participating Ottawa hotels in April.
Lineups for the three-hour shows include acts such as Alan Doyle, Walk Off The Earth, Third Eye Blind, Gerry Dee and a virtual conversation with Saturday Night Live’s Pete Davidson and Alex Moffatt.
Cost of admission is included with a night’s stay, but the performances won’t be available anywhere else, so residents will have to book their room for the night of the concert they want to attend.
The idea is the brainchild of Ottawa Tourism, the team behind Bluesfest, the local hotel sector and other tourism industry stakeholders. It’s funded in part by the Ontario Government.
Michael Crockatt, CEO of Ottawa Tourism, tells Global News the “staycation” concept is one of the few pitches the local hospitality sector can make for some much-needed support as inter-regional travel is discouraged amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.
He says the chance to get out of the house — with your household members — for a change of scenery can boost mental health at the same time as it bolsters business for hotels and nearby amenities who would normally be gearing up for a busy summer festival and tourism season.
“We’ve got to make sure that our tourism businesses will get to the other side of that wall,” he says.
While visitor spending in the nation’s capital hit $2.2 billion in 2019, Ottawa Tourism expects that figure to be $1.4 billion lower in 2020 and $1 billion lower in 2021 amid the ongoing pandemic.
But despite the dire straits, Crockatt says he is happy to see a few targeted incentives announced in Wednesday’s provincial budget.
This includes an Ontario tourism and hospitality small business grant, which can provide between $10,000 to $20,000 to operators who don’t qualify for the province’s existing small business support grant.
Crockatt says he hasn’t seen a budget with so many items for the hospitality sector in his career, and lauds the province’s targeted approach to shoring up support for businesses that would otherwise fall through the cracks.
He credits Nepean MPP and Minister of Tourism and Culture Lisa MacLeod for going “to bat for the industry.”
But despite innovative programs and government support, the future of tourism in Ottawa remains cloudy.
Levels of COVID-19 have been steadily rising locally in the past month. A shift to the red zone on Ontario’s reopening framework put the kibosh on plans for a 100-person outdoor concert at Lansdowne Park, which planned to use masks, distancing and rapid-testing to provide a safer experience.
Crockatt acknowledges it hasn’t been a good year for optimism in the sector, joking that the team at Ottawa Tourism recently celebrated a year of “wrong predictions.”
He says it’s “realistic” to expect there will be at least some level of public health restrictions in place this summer depending on the rise and fall of COVID-19 cases and vaccination campaign progress, so the festival season in Ottawa will not be business as usual.
But he says the local tourism association’s research shows a “pent-up demand” for entertainment and travel options in the post-pandemic world, and he expects there will be a number of people keen to take advantage of lifted restrictions when the pandemic is closer to being under control.
Ottawa Tourism has already been doing some rough math to make some projections once inter-regional travel becomes safe again.
Crockatt says that if every household in Ottawa invites two people to the city for a three-night stay once restrictions are lifted, the resultant visitor spending could inject half a billion dollars into the local tourism economy.
In the meantime, Ottawa’s hospitality sector is relying on in-town spending to keep dollars flowing.
Anyone keen to participate in the Room Service concert series is encouraged to only book stays with members of their existing household, wear a mask in common areas of the hotel, maintain two metres of distance from other guests and follow all other Ottawa Public Health directives.
Room Service Concert Series lineup:
- Friday, April 9: Alan Doyle; Natalie MacMaster & Donnell Leahy; Fortunate Ones
- Saturday, April 10: Myles Goodwyn; Tim Hicks, Lindsay Ell
- Friday, April 16: Lennon Stella; Sofia Franklyn; Larkin Poe
- Saturday, April 17: Gerry Dee; Jeremy Hotz; Kyle Brownrigg
- Thursday, April 22: A Virtual Conversation with Pete Davidson and Alex Moffat from SNL; Orville Peck
- Friday, April 23: Third Eye Blind; Moon vs Sun; Nefe
- Saturday, April 24: Walk Off The Earth; Fousheé; Lido Pimienta
- Friday, April 30: Colin James; Booker T. Jones; Christone “Kingfish” Ingram