Canadians are increasingly looking to fall as a getaway season.
With the stay-at-home lockdowns persisting for many Canadians in the summer months, and land borders only opening to fully vaccinated Americans on 09AUG, many had thought that Canada’s summer travel season was lost.
However, according to the Globe and Mail, many Canadians are finding fall 2021 to be a “sweet spot,” due to high vaccination rates and a consistent period of reopening before an expected fourth wave and further lockdowns may strike.
The article reports that fully vaccinated Canadians are looking to travel to domestic destinations with high vaccination rates, contact tracing, and that are consistently open.
It cites one example: an Ontario couple, Louise Harris and Betty Wood, who booked a mid-SEP vacation to Nova Scotia for just these reasons.
“We timed it for pretty shortly after kids went back to school, before anything could close down as a result of [the start of the school year],” Ms. Harris explained.
Tourism boards, such as Destination British Columbia, are finding that normally off-peak autumn is allowing tourism businesses to recover revenue lost as a result of a short summer season. They are hoping many more Canadians book trips this fall.
“Focusing on fall is not something we’ve normally done,” explains Maya Lange, vice-president of global marketing for Destination BC. This year, the tourism board is launching fall marketing campaigns targeting tourists in Alberta, Ontario and within BC.
“Because we’ve been so limited in what was possible in the summer, we’ve really looked at how we can extend the summer into the fall,” Ms. Lange explains.
“SEP and OCT are turning into really great travel months, especially in the southern half of B.C. By doing good marketing and focusing on what there is to offer and helping to highlight those activities, we’re building demand locally.”
Destinations are touting new tourist attractions that are opening, such as the Golden Skybridge in BC, as well as the scenic fall colours.
B.C. isn’t alone. Other Canadian destinations are playing every card in their hand to recoup lost pandemic revenues in the waning weeks of an extended ‘high season’ of travel this year.
