Image Credit: CFJC Today / Kent Simmonds

By Jill Sperling

Long Weekend Visitors

Shuswap businesses look to find the balance between profit and safety

May 15, 2020 | 4:31 PM

SCOTCH CREEK, B.C. — A long weekend in the Shuswap usually brings out plenty of campers and people who visit businesses in the small lakeside communities.

But, heading into the Victoria Day long weekend, the message from the province is, ‘don’t travel.’

“As we know, the tourism industry in this region is very important,” said Shuswap MLA Greg Kyllo. “I would estimate that on an average year, probably 50 per cent of business for the tourism sector probably comes from neighbouring provinces, and of course, if businesses are open and not to see any travel from outside of this province, from outside of this region, it’s going to be extremely difficult to re-open.”

Some North Shuswap businesses have been struggling under pandemic restrictions.

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“We’re part of this small community as well,” said Ecotreats owner Karina White, “so a balance of having our business surviving as well as being safe health-wise, it’s a challenging position.”

White says her business would normally open by mid-February, but the opening was delayed due to COVID-19.

“We’ve just opened today,” she said. “We’ve got limited staff, we have all our directional flow all taped out inside, and we basically have to take it day by day at this point and see how it’s going.”

Celista Estate Winery was also slow to get on its feet, opening its tasting room for pick up only just last weekend.

“We don’t have tastings,” said owner Jake Ootes. “We don’t let people open a bottle and taste the wines, and of course that’s a bit of a challenge. I just had a phone call from someone as a matter of fact, and he said, ‘Well, how do I know what the wine is like?’ and I said, ‘Well, all our wine is great.'”

The winery is taking measures to follow provincial health guidelines, limiting the number of guests in the tasting room, providing hand sanitizer and keeping staff physically distant from one another.

This weekend could bring a surge in sales if people decide to travel from out of town.

“I’ve noticed that they’re already coming, I’ve noticed a lot of campers coming in, a lot of boats coming in, and so I suspect a lot of those people are going to come,” Ootes said. “As a business, of course, we’ll deal with the crowds coming here, we have to ensure that there’s separation of people.”

The number of tourists in the region may see increase this weekend, but it’s not expected to be anywhere close to normal.

“The roadways have been so quiet over the last few months that any increase in traffic seems like an awful lot, or a huge increase,” Kyllo said. “I suspect that as we get past the weekend, we’ll likely see that numbers of those travelling on our roadways over this May long weekend are significantly below last year.”

The message this weekend is to stay close to home, but those who live in the local area are encouraged to get out and explore what the Shuswap has to offer.