Tourism organizations in British Columbia are applauding a new report that calls on the province to help operators survive the pandemic.    BC's Tourism Task Force report recommends the creation of a $95-million dollar emergency grant fund to help tourism businesses stay open in the short-term. It's also asking for $50 million to focus on the future with economic recovery funding.

The report predicts "demand will not return to the sector until 2022 and it will take even longer for revenues and employment to return to pre-COVID levels." Anthony Everett, the president and CEO of Tourism Vancouver Island, agrees with the grim outlook. That organization is about to receive $2.5 million dollars for tourism-related infrastructure projects. Everett says there are plenty of worthwhile projects that can get underway thanks to that funding, but he says they won't really matter if tourism operators do not survive.

Anthony Everett: 

The task force report says data suggests the sector's annual revenues have declined from more than $20 billion dollars a year, to under $7 billion this year. It says half of BC's tourism jobs were lost in 2020, and only one quarter of all tourism businesses outside of metro Vancouver and Whistler operated over the summer.

BC's Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport, Melanie Mark, has not yet responded to the report's recommendations.