Yukon tourism businesses look ahead with hope and uncertainty

2020 was a terrible year for the tourism industry — and in Yukon, things are not necessarily expected to turn around quickly even with a vaccine now in hand.

Air North president Joe Sparling says the new year appears to be off to a horrible start for his company. With borders closed and travel restrictions in place, fewer people are travelling.

"We've combined and cut flights throughout the week due to lack of traffic," Sparling said.

"People are listening to the medical officer's advice and staying home. No point in flying empty planes around."

Sparling says if the number of travellers continues to decrease he will have no choice but to cancel more flights.

Michael Hale, president of Northern Vision Development, says last year was the worst his company has ever experienced. The company owns several hotels and other businesses around the territory.

"If it wasn't for government support and the mining sector sustaining us, we would have struggled to survive."

Hale says that 2021 could be the year that tourism operators begin to bounce back, but he's not expecting things to happen quickly.

"Nobody should operate under the assumption that 2021 is going to be a great tourism year. No one is going to have a good year," he said.

Hale says he is hopeful now that there is a vaccine, but he acknowledges that there are many factors that come into play to build tourism up again.

"Vaccines will have to roll out across the world to really start turning tourism around," Hale said.

"Consumers are going to have to start to get comfortable with travelling again. It won't be until 2022 or 2023 until we see historic levels of tourism."

Hale says it is almost impossible to project how the 2021 summer season will look.

"Tourism operates and succeeds in the summer. It's unlikely that we'll see a summer like 2019 for a few years yet," he said.

Hundreds of businesses

According to the Tourism Industry Association of the Yukon (TIAY), there are more than 400 businesses in Yukon that are directly related to tourism and in 2019 there were around 2,000 employees working in the tourism industry.

TIAY also says tourism in Yukon provided five per cent of the territory's GDP, which is the second-highest in Canada percentage wise.

"When COVID hit, it was big not only to the tourism industry but also economically to the territory," said Neil Hartling, chair of TIAY. 

"It represents just under half a billion dollars of revenue coming into the Yukon."

The rationale behind providing relief for the tourism companies was that it was important to keep them alive and ready to become economically viable again after the pandemic.

"We've been really well-served by the federal and territorial governments," Hartling said.

"They literally brought about these relief packages at record speed."

The Yukon government has committed $15 million to the tourism industry over the next three years. $5.6 million for relief and $450,000 for recovery will be distributed by April 2021.

The unknown for everybody is how much longer the effects of the pandemic will last.

"It's a fine line," Hartling said.

"If we capture the summer season, it will be very positive. If we don't, it will be another severe blow. Each season we're missing is on a multiplier factor."