A "closed sign" could soon appear on nearly a third of canadian tourism operators who plan to shutter for good or sell after being hammered by the COVID-19 pandemic..Blacklock's Reporter says a Department of Industry report showed the average tourism business lost more than $120,000 during the pandemic..“A higher proportion of small and medium sized tourism enterprises have plans to sell, transfer or close their business in the next five years at 32% compared with 25% of businesses in all industries,” said a department report..Small operators accounted for the vast majority of businesses in the sector, it said..Tourism-related small businesses, including restaurateurs, hoteliers and tour operators suffered average net losses of $122,683, wrote analysts. Almost all, a total 85%, received government aid that averaged $64,326, including wage subsidies and interest-free loans..“More than half tourism businesses, 58%, reported they had to close temporarily due to the pandemic compared to only a third of businesses across all sectors,” said the report..“Tourism businesses reporting having to close for an average of 14 weeks in 2020.”.Findings were based on questionnaires with 9,957 business operators nationwide. Data was collected by Statistics Canada..Tourism operators testifying at parliamentary hearings complained they were hit first and hardest by the pandemic. Cabinet kept in place a recommended voluntary ban on non-essential travel for 705 days ending last February 28..“Some will not make the recovery,” the Hotel Association of Canada wrote in a 2021 submission to the Senate national finance committee. Operators were not expected to regain pre-pandemic revenues until 2024, it said..“There will be some carnage and there already has been,” Susie Grynol, CEO of the Hotel Association, testified at 2021 committee hearings. “The world is changed,” she added..The taxpayer-funded Canadian Tourism Commission at the height of the pandemic laid off 9% of its employees. Recovery for the industry would take years, it said..“We are facing the spectre of an industry in deep crisis with many parts of it on the brink of collapse,” wrote CEO Marsha Walden.
