May 24th - 31st is Tourism Week in Canada and while during a regular year it would be time to celebrate the once vibrant industry, very few will be doing that during the spring and summer of COVID-19 which has brought tourism to a standstill in the country.  

The crisis has closed the Canada/U.S. border until at least June 21st and people in Canada have been advised to stay in their own province.  Normal tourism hotspots in Alberta like Canmore and Banff are asking people to stay home as we work our way through the pandemic.

Banff-Airdrie MP Blake Richards is also the Shadow Cabinet Minister for Tourism and says it has been a huge contributor to the fabric of Canada as well as to the economy.

"It's over $100 billion a year that gets pumped into our economy and creates about 1.8 million jobs.  It brings visitors from Canada and around the world to every community in our country so it's very significant and obviously it's a very challenging year this year."

While Richards says all business in Canada is suffering through COVID-19, the tourism industry is unique.  While most businesses have reopened, or are getting ready to with many rules and restrictions in place, tourism is primarily a seasonal industry that guests need to plan for.  He says the prime season for tourism is being missed and getting back to normal will take some time.

"A lot of their revenues are generated in one part of the year and we're in that part of the year right now.  They're at risk of losing a season.  The other thing is that tourism will take longer to recover.  The government needs to give the industry some certainty about what that will look like."

Richards is disappointed that the Prime Minister promised over a month ago that help for the industry would be forthcoming but has said nothing more since that time.  Richards has some specific ideas about how the government should offer to help.

"I think to offer to market winter-tourism to make up for some of the lost summer tourism.  To help market to Canadians why they should visit different parts of the country.  Those are the kinds of things that will help to relaunch tourism and so far we have yet to get a commitment from the government to do something like that to help the industry."

Richards says the rebound is going to be difficult for all businesses in Canada and he's heard figures bandied around about one-third to one-half of businesses not being able to survive through the pandemic.  He believes the numbers for the tourism industry will be even worse. 

"That's (one-third to one-half)  a scary, scary number but, whatever that number is, it will be that much worse for tourism because it isn't going to come back as quick.  They're going to have a longer window of time that they have to survive and it gets more difficult as time goes on.  I'm quite concerned about how many businesses will survive in the industry."