Peter Shokeir | [email protected]
Jasper National Park is officially over its COVID headache as Tourism Jasper anticipates a strong visitor season for 2023.
James Jackson, president and CEO of Tourism Jasper, explained that international visitation made up 30 per cent of total visitation last summer, and this would increase to 50 per cent this time around, which is “closer to normal.”
“We’re really sort of back in the swing of things. The international business is back and our forecasts are showing a very strong season ahead of us.”
The first quarter of 2023 had notably less visitation compared to the previous quarter, but Jackson said border closures and travel restrictions contributed to record visitation last year, while this year saw a more typical winter season.
“From a historical perspective, it’s not a bad year. It’s just that 2022 was so good, so I would say we’ve had a good year but not as strong as the experience last year.”
Visitation typically takes off on Victoria Day long weekend, but events such as the Jasper Pride Festival and the Jasper Canadian Rockies Half Marathon help bring in visitors during what would normally be a lull period.
“We have a number of private groups that are coming into the destination, which really helps sort of fill the gaps before that Victoria Day long weekend when things really kick off,” Jackson said.
“Even then, our research and reporting shows that the international groups are coming back pretty strong even into May and definitely into June, so we’ll be seeing pretty strong visitation prior to the peak season really kicking off, which is something to celebrate.”
While last year’s visitation was strong overall, the Chetamon wildfire and the resulting power outage in early September had a significantly negative impact on Jasper’s tourism economy.
The power outage prompted officials to discourage travel to Jasper until ATCO could fix the line and Jasper could get off generator power.
The destination lost over $10 million in direct visitor expenditures as a result, according to Tourism Jasper, which is calculated on room/night hotel losses and peripheral experiential spending, such as food and beverage as well as tourism attractions.
“That was devastating to say the least,” Jackson said.
“The wildfire happened at probably the most inopportune time that it could have happened. The first two weeks of September are some of the highest grossing days of the year, and rates are quite high, still a lot of regional and transient day traffic—we’re very busy—and so for that to all happen then was extremely challenging.”
The silver lining was how the destination rallied and tourism providers pivoted quickly to bring back visitation once power was restored.
“We were able to salvage some of September, although because of the importance of September, that really put folks behind last year,” Jackson added.
“So, as we move into this summer, we’re really looking forward and are forecasting a busy summer, and we’re happy about that.”
Most of Tourism Jasper’s marketing efforts were focused on driving demand for summer, which Jackson said was finally materializing into tangible results, and work is already underway for the Jasper Dark Sky Festival in the fall and Jasper in January next year.
During the pandemic, marketing was focused on tapping into the “captured market” of Canadian tourists that were unable to travel internationally.
“Jasper has probably never seen as many 403 area codes as it did during COVID, and I think those folks from Calgary and southern Alberta will come back, which is fantastic,” Jackson said.
“Having said that, though, we know that the average international visitor spends five times more than the regional visitors, and so with the international borders opening up and the tourism industry really sort of hitting its stride again, we’re excited to welcome the international visitors back.”
International air access into the province is nearly back to 2019 levels, which means it’s that much easier for visitors to come back to Jasper, bolstering not only the peak season but year-round visitation too.
On the supply side, Jasper has had trouble attracting and retaining labour due to the housing shortage and other factors.
Jackson said his organization undertook “a fairly robust workforce attraction campaign” over March and April to help address this issue.
“We’re happy to say that the onboarding process within the workforce sector is quite strong, with many employers saying that they’re at or exceeding 2019 levels, so that’s really exciting. It’s something the entire community should celebrate,” he said.
“As challenging as the labour market has been, I think Jasper is sort of punching above its weight when it comes to welcoming newcomers to the community, and hopefully we can sustain that for years to come.”
This article originally appeared in Peak Jasper, the Fitzhugh’s annual business magazine. Check out the digital version online, or request your own copies for your home or business at [email protected]
