The Best Western Plus in Kamloops went from 75 to 25 per cent occupancy for bookings in March (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Chad Klassen

COVID-19

Hotels in Kamloops feeling immediate impact from COVID-19 outbreak

Mar 17, 2020 | 6:06 PM

KAMLOOPS — The impacts of COVID-19 have been seen immediately at hotels like the Best Western Plus with cancellations that are putting a major dent in the industry’s bottom line.

“It’s millions of dollars. We’ve got close to 3,000 rooms in town. Normally, for the next three months, we run 60 to 70 per cent as a community. If we’re going to run 15 to 20, you do the math on that, that is millions of dollars of economic impact that’s not coming into town,” said General Manager of the Best Western Plus Kamloops Tim Rodgers.

Rodgers says not only have domestic bookings been cancelled in the short term, but international visitors booked to come to Kamloops this summer have also changed their plans.

“We’ve seen our last two weeks of March go from about a 75 per cent occupancy down to about 25 per cent occupancy,” noted Rodgers. “We’ve seen April and May with a lot of cancellations. Now we’re down to 20 per cent max occupancy.”

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The Hampton by Hilton in Aberdeen was impacted immediately with more than 230 cancellations last Thursday and Friday, and are expecting more impacts.

“The drops will be unique depending on the type of property you have, anywhere from probably between 40 and 75 per cent of business has slowed down over where we thought we would be at this time of year in March,” said Steve Earl, spokesperson of the PHI Group, which owns the Hampton, the Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott, and the Holiday Inn at Library Square on the North Shore.

As a result of cancellations, there have already been layoffs and hotels are putting a hold on their seasonal hires.

On a more broad scale, CEO of Tourism Kamloops Bev DeSantis has been meeting with business stakeholders in the city, trying to streamline information about the virus and resources available. In the long term, Tourism Kamloops is shifting its marketing strategy to target Western Canadians once recovery begins from COVID-19.

“We will focus on Alberta and B.C., the drive markets, and maybe into the Northwest United States as well,” noted DeSantis. “Those markets are key for us anyway, and so they’re not going to be a tough sell to come back and enjoy the Kamloops area.”

Despite the uncertainty, DeSantis believes Kamloops is in a good position — compared to Vancouver, for example — to bounce back from this looming economic downturn.

“We have our wide-open spaces, our mountain biking, our golf, our wine, our hiking trails. This is where people will probably gravitate to first when you start to see recovery in tourism.”