Hurricane Irma brings relatively minimal impact to Kamloops travel agency

Sep 10, 2017 | 10:17 AM

KAMLOOPS — A Kamloops travel agency says the business impact from this year’s tropical storms and hurricanes hasn’t been too bad.

“We’ve had to rebook some trips to Cabo San Lucas that were supposed to happen in the next few weeks,” said Roxanna Ferguson, Owner of Travelwise. “Quite a few hotels are still closed from Tropical Storm Lidia that tore through there last week so the people have made plans to go later this fall when hopefully things are back to normal.”

Ferguson says they’ve had to cancel a few flights to Florida due to Hurricane Irma.

The Category 4 hurricane swept through the Carribbean earlier this week killing at least 20 people according to news outlets before making landfill in Florida Sunday.

She says travel agents try to warn people against travelling during hurricane season.

“Hurricane season typically starts in June and can run all the way into early December, which a lot of people don’t realize ” warned Ferguson. “For the people who are looking for a bargain, they’re usually willing to take their chances because we have years where it’s hurricane season and there’s a tropical storm or two but nothing like what we’re seeing this fall.”

Ferguson says their biggest business hit could come in October which, regardless of the warnings, is still a busy month for tropical bookings.

“Of course islands like Barbuda that have suffered significant damage, you know if you’re going there for holiday, you won’t be going there for a holiday” said Ferguson. “Islands like Saint Lucia and Cuba, we’ll see what the result of the damage is in a couple weeks time when everything has settled down and then customers can determine whether they want  to re-book or get a refund.”