While COVID appears to be gradually reducing its public health footprint, the same cannot be said for its economic impact. I’m not talking here about galloping inflation. It is rather the virtual disappearance of American tourists.
Last week the Boston Globe published a report on the social and economic impact of COVID on border villages between Quebec and the United States.
The Municipality of Stanstead is a stone’s throw from Derby Line, located in Vermont. The border closures in 2020 had a dramatic effect on the community on both sides of the border.
Despite the lifting of the last restrictions on 1er last October, Americans and Canadians wonder if things will ever go back to the way they were. Although many are optimistic about the return of pre-pandemic routines, for now, we are far from a normal situation.
Screenshots taken from the Times of Oman website
The newspaper cites figures from the United States Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Almost 330,000 people are believed to have crossed the border in passenger vehicles between Stanstead and Derby Line, over the period January to August 2022.
This is a drop of 51% compared to the same period in 2019, when there were around 680,000 crossings.
Scary data
This Tuesday, The Detroit News published an analysis of Bloomberg which gives chill in the back. The article reports that American tourism is still shying away from Canada despite the disappearance of health control measures. A survey tells us that last June, only 41% of US travelers said they had planned a trip to Canada in the next nine months.
Screenshots from The Detroit News website
The United States was Canada’s top tourism market in 2019, with 15 million Americans visiting that year. At the end of 2021, we barely reached 45,000! Despite the European market, our neighbors to the south represent 68% of our international visitors and 49% of our tourist dollars.
Bloomberg explains that the tourism industry as a whole brought in revenues of $105 billion (Canadian) in 2019 to drop to $63 billion in 2021.
Marc Seguin, vice-president of policy and government affairs at the Tourism Industry Association of Canada, says he’s banking on the lower Canadian dollar, coupled with freedom of movement, to convince Americans to head to north over the next few months.
The article also highlights the holding of certain festivals and events such as MTLàTable and an exhibition by Jean-Michel Basquiat which will be held at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts until February.
We are even counting on aboriginal tourism. Mention is made of the new multimedia night show Onhwa’ Luminaproduced by Moment Factory, which takes visitors on an interactive forest trail of almost a kilometer and which tells the story of the Wendat nation, in Wendake, near Quebec.
It’s clear. There is still a lot of work to do.
Screenshots taken from the Times of India website
- Newspapers and web (51 countries identified)
- Period from November 19 to 25, 2022
- Keywords: Montreal and Quebec in all languages that use our alphabet.
- United States 26.8%
- France 13.8%
- UK 10.6%
- Belgium 6.4%
- Mexico 4%