Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Adel Ahmed

KAMLOOPS TOURISM

‘Are we going to be able to book anyone else in?’: Kamloops sees tourism windfall in 2022

Jul 6, 2023 | 5:14 PM

KAMLOOPS — 2022 was a busier year for visitors in Kamloops than years past.

According to the Tourism Kamloops economic report, a new record was set with more than 1.9 million visitors staying in the city.

“2019 was our record-breaking year and we saw that not only in Kamloops but across the province and across the country,” CEO of Tourism Kamloops Monica Dickinson told CFJC Today. “We were really kind of curious what 2022 was going to look like for us but we felt that buzz and vibe in the city. Our businesses were telling us that we are busier than ever.”

One business that experienced an increase was the Best Western Plus. The hotel’s manager says it were fully booked almost every weekend from the spring to fall of last year.

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“I remember people calling in May saying, ‘I’m sorry, from May until September we’re pretty much sold out every weekend with teams,” said General Manager Jennifer Krohn. “There were times when we were going, ‘Oh my gosh, are we going to be able to book anybody else in?’ It was pretty great and stressful all at the same time.”

From the nearly two million people who paid a visit to the Tournament Capital, $310 million dollars was spent in the community.

“It definitely helped us be able to fund more of our renovations and pay for things we hadn’t purchased during the pandemic, for sure,” said Krohn. “It definitely really, really helped — also being that we were so busy that we were able to really increase our rates.”

Events that happened this year like the Scotties Tournament of Hearts and the Memorial Cup could see those visitor numbers increase for next year’s report. But for now, Dickinson says the demand is starting to level out.

“We are sitting in a position right now that we’re hearing there’s a softening. This is a conversation with our hotel partners and some of our major attractions that the demand is sort of leveled out and we anticipated that.”