Destination Battlefords has been hit hard by the pandemic, as travel to the community - as it has most everywhere - has been has been severely cut down this year. (Facebook/Destination Battlefords)

By Martin Martinson

Local Travel

Destination Battlefords feeling effects of restricted travel

Dec 3, 2020 | 4:52 PM

The harsh impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has been felt across the business community, but perhaps no specific sector has been hit quite as hard as the travel industry.

Executive director with Destination Battlefords, Ryan Bater said the far-reaching impact of the last nine months-or-so, has been nothing short of colossal for travel, both locally and beyond.

“It’s been devastating to the industry, there’s no question about it,” Bater said. “While the economic impact of the pandemic has been far reaching in almost all sectors, I think the tourism sector may be the hardest hit. And that’s not just here, that is throughout Canada and likely the world.”

Bater added it’s also tough to say when things may bounce back. He said it remains important to consider both the tangible and less-tangible elements that could continue to hinder the market for travel, even once specific restrictions are eased up, or even lifted altogether.

“The first thing to consider is the public health orders given by the provincial government,” Bater said. “That’s an actual limitation on things like occupancy in restaurants and the ability of people to travel; but the other thing is that this is also impacting the propensity for people to travel.”

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He went on to explain while the direct health orders impact occupancy rates within hotels and the actual attractions of the community, the second point refers to the lasting mood or feeling of people towards travel, following the pandemic.

The concern is that even if/when a vaccine is made readily available to the public, people’s likelihood to travel may still be impacted.

“In other words, there may be people who don’t have as much confidence in travel as they used to,” Bater said. “That is an unknown, and of course we’re hoping that people will still want to travel, not just for leisure but for business as well. We really rely on a lot of business travel in this community, and we rely on a lot of travel-related sports tourism.”

One of the hardest hits to the local travel industry came this winter, with the postponement or all-out cancellation of a number of winter sports seasons.

While it is certainly a very difficult time for the travel industry, Bater said there have still been, and will hopefully continue to be, some bright spots amid the challenges.

This summer for example, the local golf courses in the area proved to be incredibly popular. Bater said they are hopeful the community can receive another similar boost this winter, with activities such as cross-country skiing and snowmobiling having the potential to draw similar interest from those across the region.

“We have some of the best cross-country ski trails within Saskatchewan, and we have an amazing snowmobile trail system,” Bater said. “Those are very safe activities people can do while social distancing, so I expect we will see a lot of activity and a lot of travel into our area for some of those things, which would certainly be great to see.”

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Martin.Martinson@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: MartyMartyPxP1