COVID-19 impact could devastate northwestern Ontario's outdoor tourism, business owners say

The COVID-19 pandemic has touched every facet of life and impacted nearly every part of the world.

That includes all types of business and travel tourism.

In northwestern Ontario, one large part of the economy is the outdoor tourism sector. This business relies primarily on anglers and hunters, most of whom travel north from the United States.

With the pandemic ramping up, and strict measures in place at the Canadian borders to keep non-essential travelers out, the spring and summer outdoor tourism season now is in jeopardy, business owners say.

Gerry Cariou is the executive director of the Sunset Country Tourism Association, based in Kenora, Ont. The organization has about 270 members, including lodge owners, restaurants, retail stores, fishing guides and other businesses.

Nearly all rely on U.S. based visitors, Cariou said. The situation with the pandemic is unprecedented, and no one really knows what will happen.

The pandemic – and the closed border – has massively impacted the marketing his organization normally does, he said.

"The ability for us to do anything is somewhat limited," said Cariou."The people who provide funding to us have told us to stop – or greatly reduce – marketing. So we have had to stop a lot of the promotion we would normally do. This is normally the time of year we promote as heavily as we can."

For the members of Sunset Country, the concerns are many and complex, Cariou said. One major issue at present involves American-based owners who need to access their businesses.

"We believe there is a clause in the temporary foreign workers act where they will be allowed in but will have to self isolate for 14 days on arrival in Canada," he said. "Given they are going to go straight to their lodge hopefully. They have lots of work to do anyway.That's been a big concern."

The winter tourism and ice fishing season has already been cancelled, Cariou said. The next big start to the season begins on the May long weekend.

"People are waiting a little bit," he said. "The time appears to be longer than people thought...two months, June, Julyish? Maybe by then this thing will have burned out. We don't know. Nobody knows. As we get closer to walleye season, the cluster of cancellations is going to start."

Alan Cheeseman is the owner of Wilderness North in Thunder Bay. His company owns a seaplane base in the city and one near Armstrong, as well as several lodges and outpost camps.

They too are carefully watching the situation, Cheeseman said, but they realize the impact of the closed border is a barrier to customers.

"Ninety-five per cent of our customers are American," he said,"and at this point, we are kind of thinking midsummer now, looking at the situation in the south."

All signs point to losing May and possibly June, due to the ongoing pandemic and the associated control measures, Cheeseman said.

They remain optimistic, he added, and have so far had few cancellations despite the present situation. However, Cheeseman said his team is looking at ways to expand their business.

One of the options is to focus much more on the domestic angler, especially in southern Ontario.

"There are millions of people there, and so we need to look at Toronto as a go-to market," Cheeseman said.

The loss of Porter Airlines service due to the pandemic is a blow to getting people to Thunder Bay and their business, he noted, but he said domestic traffic can still drive north.

For his part, Cariou said his spring is looking a lot different. He expects much of his time will be spent helping many of the members of Sunset Country access government funding, he said.

"I guess the question now is what programs are available to our members to help weather the storm," he said.