Despite heavy smoke in August, Osoyoos Lake and Gyro Beach were still popular spots for visitors to Osoyoos this summer. Ingrid Jarrett, general manager of Watermark Beach Resort, says we can do more to promote off-season visitors and Kelley Glazer of Destination Osoyoos wants visitors to discover attractions beyond the lake. (Richard McGuire file photo)
Some Osoyoos tourism businesses were hit harder than others by the past summer’s worse-than-usual wildfire smoke.
Ryan Turcot, a fire information officer with BC Wildfire Service, confirmed that the 2018 wildfire season was the worst in British Columbia’s history, with the total number of hectares burned surpassing last year.
The resulting smoke affected some local businesses in Osoyoos more than others.
Jasbir Mahal, manager of the Coast Osoyoos Beach Hotel on Hotel Row, says that while his hotel was the “hardest hit in this area” by the spring flooding of Osoyoos Lake, the smoke “didn’t affect us.”
Some people cancelled their reservations due to highway closures, but Mahal believes that it only amounted to a one-per-cent drop in normal occupancy.
He says the hotel’s regular guests were not deterred and he believes that last year’s fires were worse for business.
Bordertown Vineyards and Estate Winery owner Mohan Gill does not agree. He thinks that the effect of the fires was “worse than last year.”
The traffic at his winery’s tasting tours was “less for sure” as people who planned to come for wine tasting tours cancelled because “as soon as they see smoke, they don’t like to come,” he said.
Paul Savage, the owner and operator of Rattlesnake Canyon, says he definitely noticed a difference in the attendance levels at his park this summer. He believes that some customers just didn’t want to be outside.
He notes that while that there were fewer people coming through the gate during the summer, he had a better Labour Day turnout this year compared to last year.
Savage says that he tries to speak to as many of his customers as he can and always asks his guests where they are from.
This year many of his customers commented about the smoke, telling him that since “the same thing happened last year,” they would prefer to travel to Osoyoos in July next year instead of August because the wildfires seem like “the new norm,” he said.
Ingrid Jarrett, general manager and vice president of business development at Watermark Beach Resort, says the fires have had “an increasingly negative impact on our industry.”
Jarrett believes that the term “new norm” is a dangerous one. “We can’t afford it to be that”, she says. “We are a designated tourism community. We need to be progressive about which terms we use.”
Jarrett says the impact of the smoke on the Watermark Beach Resort has continued and that the first two weeks of September, which are usually stronger than June, have been unusually quiet.
“Yes, it affected Watermark in a negative way, in a time of year that we generally do exceptionally well… absolutely it did.”
Jarrett appreciates that the smoke affects businesses differently, saying, “Some will have done very well; some will be in a critical financial situation.”
She adamantly believes that the key to overcoming the damaging effects of the smoke on the tourism industry is to promote the off-season by developing “travel options besides beaches.”
Kelley Glazer, executive director of Destination Osoyoos agrees. She believes that businesses have to keep up with what a more global consumer is looking for by asking themselves, “What are we doing to make Osoyoos the place people want to be?”
She believes that local businesses and the community must find “other reasons to bring people here aside from the lake” and help visitors discover all of the other things there are to do in Osoyoos.
Glazer acknowledges that the smoke “got quite bad and got quite heavy” and impacted the temperature in August, but is quick to point out that it was a lot of small things that added up to drive traffic away.
Most of the negative comments come from people in Western B.C. rather than from the surrounding areas, she said, adding that “the fires have planted the seed” for people not to travel to Osoyoos, but she says, “we all hope it’s not the new normal.”
Frances Sologuk, from the family-owned Osoyoos Home Hardware, said that when she moved to Osoyoos in 1973, “the weather was extremely predictable” but that is no longer the case.
While her store enjoyed “the beginnings of an amazing summer,” sales were “definitely affected… no question,” by the smoke in August, she said.
Sologuk’s store, like many local businesses, relies on foot traffic for sales, something she says was lacking in August due to the smoke and air quality reports. She recognizes the hardships that other businesses in the area have faced and says, “We all felt the smoke this year. I didn’t feel it last year, but I felt it this year.”
MICHELE WEISZ
Osoyoos Times
