‘Cautiously optimistic’: Okanagan tourism operators prepare for unofficial start to summer
Global News
Several tourism attractions open for the season this weekend and hotels are expected to begin to fill up.
The May long weekend is the unofficial start to summer in the Okanagan, when several tourism attractions open for the season and hotels begin to fill up.
Diana Stirling owns and operates several tourist attractions in Penticton, B.C., including LocoLanding Adventure Park, Cherry on Top Shake Shop, and Lickity Splitz.
“We’ve had the best start ever to our tourist season with the heat, it almost seemed like it was summer early. It was unbelievable. LocoLanding was busy, our ice cream shops were super busy,” said Stirling.
“We were seeing numbers that we don’t see in May, which is phenomenal. And I’m just so cautiously optimistic that that is an indication of how the entire season will go.”
The South Okanagan tourism sector was significantly impacted by a temporary travel ban last year, in response to a wildfire in West Kelowna.
“We lost almost a quarter of our season unexpectedly and we’ve never encountered that before, not even during COVID did we encounter that, so it was very shocking for us and for the majority of tourism operators,” said Stirling.
“We were more cautious on our reinvestment in this season. So, for the 2024 season, we had to put on hold some of our reinvestment decisions that we had hoped that we would be making. We’re doing our best where everything looks amazing, and we’ve introduced a few new things at our at our locations. But I think that at the end of the day, that’s what had us.”
The order was issued on Aug. 19 of last year, banning non-essential stays at local hotels and campgrounds. That travel ban was lifted days later.
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