For the tourism industry, it’s been a time of unprecedented downturn, and what some might agree, gut checking. But it’s also a time for innovation, composure and some hope. Nelson Kootenay Lake’s Dianna Ducs spoke with Kootenay Co-op Radio’s Kootenay Morning Show Wednesday, updating listeners on the great, the not-great and well, the ugly.

Given the provincial ban on travel, which prohibits any in-bound tourism promotion, NKL has instead began producing a video story-telling series called “Our Place”.

“We’re trying to remind the market of the great people and sights to see here,” says Ducs, “once the pandemic is over and visitors begin to return.”
Ducs also noted the latest estimates from Destination BC, which is projects a lifting of inter-provincial travel bans as early as March or as late as July.
While the region’s tourism sector is ‘holding its own” Ducs notes some grim accommodation stats. At this time of year local hotels and motels are generally 60 percent capacity. Currently, they’re at just two percent.
Noting the importance of sustainability, Ducs says the tourism sector is hoping that when visitation does begin to return to normal, it does so in ‘a dribble’ instead of a torrent.
A little over a year ago, the global tourism industry was showing signs of significant overcrowding as holiday hot spots became over-run with travellers whose numbers had begun to swell to levels that saw local residents being forced to leave the world’s famous cities for less-busy places.