The tourism industry has launched an online survey to help gather detailed insights into how the wildfires have affected Jasper businesses.
The Jasper Wildfire Business Conditions Survey aims to help quantify economic losses from the fire as well as expedite the safe return of residents, and the re-building and re-opening of Jasper’s tourism-based economy.
“There's a real whirlwind of both activity and information, so this survey is intended to try to cut through some of the noise and understand what challenges operators are facing right now,” said Stavros Karlos with the Tourism Industry Association of Alberta.
The survey is being conducted by Tourism Jasper, with support from the Alberta Hotel and Lodging Association, Association for Mountain Parks Protection and Enjoyment and Tourism Industry Association of Alberta.
Karlos explained that they regularly survey the tourism industry at least biannually and conduct targeted surveys for emergency situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing Jasper wildfires.
Questions include those about the current condition of the business’s property and structures, if it can operate in a temporary or off-site location and how long it would take to return to normal operations once the evacuation order is lifted.
Other questions focus on the financial impact, such as the estimated daily revenue loss and total monthly expenses while closed, and what kind of insurance coverage the business has.
The survey says gathered information will eventually be used to inform and strengthen advocacy efforts toward the federal and provincial government.
“All we will do currently is aggregate the information and then report back to the partners,” Karlos said.
The survey takes no more than 10 minutes to complete.
Participation in the survey is entirely voluntary, and businesses can withdraw from the survey at any time.
Responses as well as business and personal information will be kept confidential.
“We're asking high-level questions to get an understanding of the post-wildfire landscape,” Karlos said.
“Of course, [for] operators, business, community members. It’s really hard to answer a lot of these questions, but in order to start to quantify the scale of assistance that’s needed, this [survey] is valuable work.”
Karlos added how they had been hearing “concerns and uncertainty” from Jasper businesses.
He also clarified that the survey isn't asking about exact damage estimates but to understand what was insured.
“But the corresponding economic impact of this are not going to be just limited to the loss of property,” Karlos said.
“It's going to have an impact on the economy, and understanding what that looks like in a mono-economy like Jasper, or a relative mono-economy, there’s not a lot of case studies for it.”
Businesses are asked to complete the survey by 5 p.m. Friday (Aug. 2).
