Member Update on COVID-19

Dear Members,

NWT Tourism, along with our entire industry across the country and internationally, continues to be very concerned about the current impact of Coronavirus on the tourism industry, and the potential future impact as this situation changes by the hour. 

We are hearing from various members about direct impacts on their business from cancellations, and we know there is great uncertainty regarding the near future for everyone in the industry. 

For now, we wanted to issue an update on some key things that NWT Tourism is doing as we advocate for our industry.

As the Chair of the Board of NWT Tourism, I have sent a letter to Premier Caroline Cochrane, and have asked her to seriously consider the following: 

1. The establishment of an emergency contingency fund to help mitigate the economic impacts felt by the industry.
2. To support the provision of one-time special funding for Destination Canada to boost marketing in the United States this spring to encourage travel into Canada during the summer season, if travel between the United States and Canada is not affected by travel advisories during that time period.
3. Support the Federal Government to make the decision to provide funding to help launch a nation-wide campaign encouraging Canadians to travel domestically or to visit local sites in their communities instead of travelling internationally, taking into consideration timing of travel advisories.
4. Provide stimulus funding to position our industry to rebound once the pandemic is over, including increased marketing funds to promote the Northwest Territories after the crisis has passed. We know from experience with the SARS outbreak that tourism can bounce back very quickly but the Northwest Territories must be able to capitalize on the opportunity as soon as it presents itself.
5. Put in place supports for employers who have employees in the LMIA program on track to become permanent residents of Canada to help employers manage their financial commitments to this program during the pandemic.
6. Put in place supports for seasonal workers, such as paddling and outdoor adventure guides, whose summer seasons are critical for their annual income.
7. Ensure increased training supports are available to help employers who have had to lay off staff due to low revenue as they are losing investments already made in recruitment and training and we anticipate some capacity loss where layoffs are survival strategies.
8. Provide clear direction to those working in the tourism industry including those who market tourism regarding general travel for work and also guidelines for hosting guests from Canada and abroad. Clear government direction would enable the industry to ensure that we are assisting with efforts to contain the spread of the virus.

I would like you to know that the tourism industry associations across Canada are connecting to share information and they are working with their provincial and territorial governments to ensure our industry challenges and needs are articulated. Our CEO is in touch with these colleagues and with Destination Canada's team on a regular basis as we all work through this pandemic. 

Our CEO has advised me that members have been sharing information about business cancellations and the impact of the pandemic on their businesses to date. Thank you everyone for your willingness to share with us as this helps us put a collective voice to governments on what your businesses need to get through this.

The Government of the Northwest Territories, Department of Industry, Tourism & Investment will be issuing a survey aimed at quantifying the financial impact of COVID-19 on the tourism industry. The survey will be sent by GNWT to all licensed tourism operators in the near future.  We have offered to send the survey to all of our members because not all members of NWT Tourism are licensed tourism operators and we want to ensure that those businesses that are not licensed tour operators but whose business has a direct connection to our industry have an opportunity to share the impacts on their business as well. We understand the survey will be issued in the very near future and we encourage all our members to do the survey right away when it is issued.  We will send a communication out with the link to the survey as soon as the survey is live.

Our CEO has also advised me that there is the potential for a variety of interruptions to the normal marketing activities undertaken by our staff in the foreseeable future. For example, we have had travel trade and media familiarization tours that were planned for March cancelled on less than 24 hours notice this week. I want you to know that I am being kept apprised of situations such as this, and our staff are working hard to find ways to deliver the correct tourism marketing message at the right time to our target audience.  Things are changing very quickly and I want to say thank you to our staff for the extra work they are putting in to manage a very dynamic and rapidly evolving situation. 

I appreciate that everyone in the tourism industry is currently balancing the need to do business with the need to be responsible citizens contributing to the health and safety of staff, visitors and the public. Please keep informed about the health situation in the NWT by going to the GNWT Health and Social Services page which has news bulletins and information about the virus: updates: https://www.hss.gov.nt.ca/en/services/coronavirus-disease-covid-19 

We are committed to working with all levels of government and we are advocating for the supports needed to help the tourism industry during the pandemic and into a rebound. During this very difficult time for everyone I would like to remind you that the tourism industry has faced outside challenges like this in the past, and we have remained strong, growing significantly in recent years.

We look forward to our future beyond COVID-19 and until then, let's continue to stay strong together.

Sincerely,

Harold Grinde
Chair, NWT Tourism Board of Directors