Lucas Punkari
Border still a
thorny issue
It may be a new year but the issues remain the same for tourist camps across the region, and especially for members of the North Western Ontario Tourism Association.
The border crossing at Fort Frances, and overall tourism numbers, topped discussions last Thursday as NWOTA held its annual spring meeting at the Nestor Falls Community Centre.
“The biggest thing is really about the number of guests that are coming,” said NWOTA president Tom Pearson, who also owns Camp Narrows Lodge on Rainy Lake.
“The border issues are an ongoing issue for us, and were hoping to get some policy changes for those going forward,” he noted.
“But people are saying the U.S. economy is picking up again and people are saying, ‘You know, we’re ready to go fishing again.’
“We’ll see how the summer goes,” Pearson added.
It’s not just tourism operators in Rainy River District who are experiencing these issues.
“The tourism decline is really an issue that is out of our control, and also out of our hands,” remarked Vermilion Bay Lodge operator Gordon Bastable, who also is president of the Kenora District Campowners Association (KDCA).
“A lot of the issues are the same no matter where you are in Northwestern Ontario, so we work on our issues together because strength in numbers is usually the way to go,” he reasoned.
The border situation, which has been ongoing for years, may be one that is tiresome to hear for many people. But for someone like Pearson, his livelihood depends on it.
“We’re trying to figure out how to market $4 million here in the north, but we’re getting so much negative publicity due to the border issues in the States [that] it doesn’t seem to help no matter what we do,” he stressed.
Pearson said he’s now at $29,000 in lost revenue since January alone, including $4,000 from a group that last week cancelled its trip pencilled in for July because one of them had a DUI from eight years ago.
“This does not include the countless other groups from years past that want to come and spend their hard-earned dollars but can’t get over our Fort Frances border,” Pearson had noted in an e-mail he sent out last week.
“[The] $29,000 does not include the approximately $3,900 in lost HST, the $1,500 in licence fees, the cab from the airport to the landing, the bait, the groceries, the fuel, and other supplies that these groups would have purchased,” he noted.
“It also does not include the spin-off value of me spending it in Fort Frances, not to mention the negative PR generated from each of these groups.
“This number does include the students wages that I will not be hiring this year, or the boats that they were going to rent that I am not purchasing,” added Pearson.
“I am one resort out of 700 in N.W. Ontario. It is happening to all of us,” he stressed.
“Does someone want to do the math?”
While most of the operators are optimistic about what their numbers will look like at the end of the year, some are approaching 2011 with a degree of caution.
“If you would have asked me a couple of months ago, I would have told you that things were looking better than last year,” Bastable said.
“But when the exchange rate took a nose dive, and the price of gas shot up, there was a bit of a decline in overall interest.
“It’s still too early to tell, but right now I would say it’s not going to be a banner year,” he warned.
And for those that have had issues with the bottom line over the last few years, this summer could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
“I know a lot of people are struggling,” said Pearson.
“And while I’m not sure of the exact numbers, there are also a lot of resorts that are currently up for sale,” he noted.
