Federal Tourism Minister Randy Boissonnault believes the industry is about a year away from setting visitor records, and Kelowna and B.C. will get their fair share of those.
Boissonnault was in Kelowna to prop up the Liberal budget to a group of business leaders at a Chamber of Commerce luncheon.
“We are going to get through this and, on the other side, we are going to have a really robust tourism ecosystem because we are going to get to pre-2019 levels probably by 2024, and that’s without the mix we had before,” Boissonnault said.
“We haven’t had the same number of visitors from Asia come back. When we have Koreans, Chinese, and Japanese come back to pre-2019 levels, we’ll set records for the number of people coming to Canada.”
Tourism worldwide suffered greatly through the pandemic as businesses were forced to shut their doors, some borders were closed, and people were told to stay inside.
A number of businesses didn’t make it.
For their part, Boissonnault says the federal Liberals pumped $23 billion into the sector during the pandemic to make sure businesses would still be operating to welcome the tourists back.
But while the pandemic did severe damage to the sector, he says there were black clouds hanging over even before 2020.
“There was an issue with labour in the tourism sector before the pandemic; it was coming. It’s a matter of paying people enough, making sure they have good working conditions and showing them what that pathway is to the future.
“Now, you are seeing employers step up and pay more.”
He says the government is also doing its part to help tourist-centered businesses attract and retain talent.
“Just this week, we launched a new program through Tourism HR Canada called Discover Tourism. It’s all about attracting the next generation of young people into the tourism sector so they can make a career out of it.
“We are extending temporary foreign worker programs, but we don’t want Canada to become a work camp, so it’s a delicate balance.
“We have also put more money into Employment Social Development Canada so we can, with the provincial nominee program, bring people into the community that the jobs are for.”
With the 2026 FIFA World Cup coming to Canada, Boissonnault says there is a great opportunity for not only Vancouver and Toronto, who will host games, to attract tourists but the rest of the country as well.
He says Tourism Kelowna will be looking to attract some of the spin-off tourists, not only during the event but also in the years leading up to the World Cup.
Advertising is expected to begin soon promoting the country and its various tourist regions in advance of the World Cup.