She and her husband began running ecotourism outfit Maple Leaf Adventures out of Vancouver about a month before the 9/11 terrorist attacks devastated international travel in 2001.“The pandemic of course was incredibly tumultuous and scary, as it was, I think, for most tour businesses in Canada,” said Gordon, who runs week-long sojourns on a schooner, converted tug boat and catamaran along the Pacific coast.
Tourism has come roaring back from pandemic lows, but operators say the sector has yet to reach pre-COVID levels and debt remains a hefty burden for thousands of small businesses across the country. The impact won’t be “as extreme” in tourism as in agriculture or food processing, she said. But it will hit ski resorts as well as tourism-dependent areas such as Northern Canada and Niagara Falls, Ont.
Across all sectors, two in three small- and medium-sized enterprises still held pandemic debt at the end of last year, with an average of $107,700, according to a Canadian Federation of Independent Business survey of 3,148 members. Out of 14 sectors surveyed, operators in hospitality and transportation were among the most pessimistic about the coming year. Only retail scored worse.“We had winters that weren’t winters for us,” said Tourism Minister Soraya Martinez Ferrada in a phone interview.
Regional transport has failed to bounce back as well, with domestic seat capacity at 84 per cent of 2019 levels as of the fourth quarter of 2023, according to Destination Canada. That can dent domestic travel and leisure markets. While no new sector-specific loans are on the horizon, she framed the $2.5 billion in carbon rebates slated to land in small- and medium-sized businesses’ bank accounts in the coming months as a financial buoy.“Most people aren’t 100 per cent confident in their projections,” she said. “It’s not a straight-line recovery … We all feel that the market is really unpredictable right now.
Airlines have capitalized on a trend of people booking super-long layovers to give them time in a hub city. Its like a vacation within a vacation.Whether you've been affected by Dubai flight cancellations or a victim of disruption elsewhere, here’s how to make sure you get the compensation you’re entitled to.Like almost everything else, the cost of travel continues to rise. But that doesn't mean you can't still find some great travel opportunities at an affordable price.