The Turks and Caicos say they’ll open for visitors on July 22. Meanwhile, Canada has extended its cruise ban on large ships, which will now be prohibited from docking in the country until October 31. I also have a report on Universal Orlando hotels re-opening June 2 and an item about a new Canadian Tourism Roundtable that aims to help the country recover from the COVID-19 crisis. Here’s today’s Future of Travel blog.
UNIVERSAL ORLANDO HOTELS TO REOPEN SOON
Beginning June 2, 2020, select Universal Orlando Resort hotels will reopen to guests. The reopening of the hotels will be carefully managed and phased, and includes a wide range of new and enhanced best-practice health, safety and hygiene procedures.
The phased reopening of the hotels will include Hard Rock Hotel at Universal Orlando, Loews Royal Pacific Resort, Loews Sapphire Falls Resort, Universal’s Cabana Bay Beach Resort, Universal’s Aventura Hotel and Universal’s Endless Summer Resort – Surfside Inn and Suites. Guests staying in these hotels will be able to visit the theme parks on June 3 and 4, prior to the public reopening on June 5.
Plans for Loews Portofino Bay Hotel and Universal’s Endless Summer Resort – Dockside Inn and Suites will be announced at a later time. Guests who have booked reservations at these two hotels through Universal Orlando or Universal Parks & Resorts Vacations will be contacted to modify their reservation if it has been affected.
Universal Orlando’s resort hotels, co-owned and operated by Loews Hotels & Co, have enhanced their standards and protocols throughout their operations.
TURKS AND CAICOS REOPENING JULY 22
The Honourable Sharlene Cartwright-Robinson, Premier of the Turks and Caicos Islands, today announced plans to reopen borders and begin welcoming visitors starting on July 22, 2020.
The specifics of new protocols associated with reopening will be shared in the coming weeks and will address stringent standards, trainings, and personal protective equipment, among other necessary measures. The safety and wellbeing of the local population and international guests remains top priority for the Turks and Caicos Islands. As such, the Premier has been vigilant regarding the continued containment of COVID-19 and finalizing new procedures.
“We are eager and excited to reopen our borders and safely welcome travelers back to the picturesque Turks and Caicos Islands later this summer,” said Pamela Ewing, Director of Tourism for the Turks and Caicos Islands Tourist Board. “In the meantime, we are taking every precaution to ensure the Islands are safe and to enhance the exceptional experience and care afforded by the destination and our world-class hospitality partners. Our intention is to cautiously reboot the tourism sector, laying the foundation for short- and long-term recovery.”
The Turks and Caicos Islands – home to the “World’s Best Beach” – is a coveted five-star luxury vacation destination for leisure, business, and notable guests from around the globe. With nine main islands of about 40 small islands and uninhabited cays, the destination is inherently safe for travel in this new paradigm of physical distancing, given its expansiveness, stunning outdoor environment, privacy, spacious resort accommodations and unique portfolio of extraordinary private villas and private island vacations.
I visited the Amanyara Resort maybe 10 years ago and thought it was fabulous.
Further, the Turks and Caicos Islands’ airline partners have confirmed flight service will resume from within the United States, Canada, and Europe as soon as the destination is ready.
CANADA EXTENDS CRUISE SHIP BAN
The East End Lighthouse on PEI is a beauty. It’s a relatively easy climb to the top.
It’s a good call from a health standpoint. But the Canadian government’s decision to ban large cruise ships through the end of October is a crushing blow for parts of Canada, including British Columbia, the Canadian maritime provinces and Quebec. All three of those areas, and other parts of the country, rely on cruise ship tourism in summer and fall. Cities such as Charlottetown are particularly reliant on cruise ship visitors to fill their shops and restaurants, not to mention regular stops at Cows Ice Cream outlets.
The government earlier had banned all big ships until July 1. This adds another four months of the year; crucial summer and fall months for the tourism business.
It’s complicated, but I also read a note on the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line blog that says the move effectively kills all Alaska and New England cruises, which means a good deal of pain south of the border.
Here’s my story for TravelPulse Canada today.
CANADIAN TOURISM ROUNDTABLE GETS STARTED
Is 2020 going to mark the Summer of Canada? JIM BYERS PHOTO ON LAKE MUSKOKA
As anyone who knows me or reads this blog would attest, I’ve railed against various levels of government for years for failing to pay enough attention to tourism. Far too often the tourism portfolio is handed off to junior ministers who move in and out of their posts faster than a Canadian Football League roster. It’s taken a worldwide pandemic to get things going, but I welcome the creation of this new roundtable group, which was announced today in the following press release. Let’s hope that they do a great job and that people in authority pay attention.
Here’s the release. Anything in bold italics and parentheses is my contribution to the story.
Leaders of the Canadian tourism and travel sectors today announced the formation of the Canadian Tourism Roundtable (“Roundtable”), a coalition of industry representatives committed to restoring the Canadian tourism and travel sector in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Roundtable is calling on all levels of government to work together to streamline and clarify rules around travel in order to ensure safe, accessible and timely travel for Canadians this summer.
(We need a few more provinces to get things under control, including my home province of Ontario, but I’m hoping we can soon start travelling around this great country.)
This sector, which supports 1.8 million workers across the country, has been devastated by the pandemic and urgent action must be taken to prevent long-lasting economic and job impacts. Through the Roundtable, leaders of Canada’s tourism and travel sector – airports, airlines, hotels, chambers of commerce, and others – have come together to restart the sector smoothly and safely and are committed to working together with all levels of government to restore the Canadian tourism industry to its potential.
“The Roundtable is looking forward to working with governments across the country to take meaningful steps to ease travel and quarantine restrictions so that they are more targeted and less universal. Failing to do so risks permanently losing millions of jobs across the country that depend upon a robust tourism sector. Other jurisdictions, like the European Union and Australia, have already unveiled action plans to save the summer travel season,” said Charlotte Bell, Chief Executive Officer of the Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC).
“The aviation, hospitality, and tourism sectors were hit particularly hard by the pandemic,” said Perrin Beatty, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. “Although a return to pre-crisis conditions may be several years off, protecting this vital sector during the critical summer season will require a carefully calibrated and targeted response from government. Restoring tourism is important for all regions of Canada,” he added.
For many Canadian businesses in the sector, re-opening the summer travel season is critical for their survival. Roundtable members recently wrote to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau requesting a meeting to discuss appropriate, more targeted and urgent measures to get the sector back to work and to encourage Canadians to safely explore our country this summer, so the season is not entirely lost for travelers or the industry.
Working with all levels of government, the Canadian Tourism Roundtable is confident it can develop and coordinate a comprehensive plan that is highly focused on public safety, to streamline the rules with the end-to-end traveler experience in mind, and to enable Canadians to connect with family and friends across the country once again, while simultaneously restoring some of Canada’s all-important summer tourism season.
Canadian National Parks like Jasper and Banff are the envy of the world. Boosting visits shouldn’t be hard, and would be a big help for the battered Canadian economy. JIM BYERS PHOTO
About the Canadian Tourism Roundtable
The Canadian Tourism Roundtable is a cross-Canadian coalition of leaders in the tourism and travel sector – including representatives from airports, airlines, hotels, and chambers of commerce across the country – committed to working together to restart the sector smoothly and safely. Travel and Tourism is a $102 billion sector, employing millions of Canadians across the country and accounting for 2.1% of the country’s gross domestic product. It advocates for a safe and prosperous tourism and travel sector across Canada.
The Canadian Tourism Roundtable
Fact Sheet
Canada’s tourism and travel sector is a dynamic, sustainable and vastly diverse industry, comprised of innovative businesses in every region of the country. It employs millions of Canadians, half of whom are under 35. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the introduction of government efforts to mitigate against it, the Canadian tourism and travel sector has been hit disproportionately hard.
Canada’s Tourism and Travel Sector
The tourism and travel sector is an important economic driver and a vital element of Canada’s economic fabric.
- Canada’s travel and tourism industry is a $102 billion sector, accounting for 2.1% of the country’s GDP.
- One out of every 11 jobs in Canada is directly involved with travelers, and the sector employs 1.8 million workers across the country, split between the travel services, accommodation, recreation and entertainment, transportation, and food and beverage industries.
- Prior to the pandemic, Canada welcomed more than 57,000 international overnight visitors to the country every day.
- Since foreign currencies are used to purchased Canadian services, tourism is Canada’s largest service export, and was worth $22.1 billion in 2018.
Below are key economic indicators that represent the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on this vital Canadian industry.
Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Canada’s Tourism Sector5
- Consumer Spending: In a recent report prepared for Destination Canada on the impact of the pandemic on domestic Canadian travel, Tourism Economics found that traveler spending could fall anywhere from $54.9 billion to $34.8 billion in 2020, representing drops of 33% and 58% respectively.6
- Employment: The number of individuals employed in tourism decreased by 433,100 in April 2020, following a decrease of 448,600 in March. Since COVID-19 related shutdowns began, tourism employment has decreased by 881,700, or 43.3%.
- From March to April, the biggest drop in employment occurred in the food & beverage services industry, dropping by 244,800, following a drop of 487,700 in March. In April, employment in food & beverage services decreased by 33.9% from March, followed by accommodations (-32.8%), travel services (-23.2%), recreation and entertainment (-20.1%), and transportation (-18.9%).
- The unemployment rate in the tourism sector skyrocketed to 28.2% in April, up from 15.8% in March and 5.7% in February. The unemployment rate is highest in the accommodations industry, followed by food and beverage services (34.3%), recreation and entertainment (28.0%), travel services (22.3%) and transportation (14.8%).
- The reduction in employment and increase in unemployment rates does not fully capture the slowdown occurring in tourism. This was particularly noticeable in March, when many tourism employees continued to work but with reduced hours. For example, from February to March, employment in accommodation and food services dropped 23.7%, but hours worked decreased 44.4%.
- While employment is dropping across all age groups, it is dropping particularly quickly for young people. Employment across all sectors for those aged 15 to 24 dropped 21.9% from March to April. This is particularly concerning as young people traditionally comprise a large part of the increased hiring that usually occurs in the tourism sector leading into the summer months.
