Tourism Sarnia-Lambton's (TSL) executive director is optimistic and hopeful the industry will be able to fully recover from the pandemic sooner than the projected timeline of 2025.
The figure is included in a new report from the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, and Tourism Industry Association of Ontario.
It said the province's tourism businesses are bringing in just 64 per cent of the revenues they saw in 2019, and 70 per cent have taken on debt to stay operational.
Mark Perrin said they're noticing some improvement, but are still facing challenges.
"When we look into the reality of some of the labour shortages, and tackling inflation, everything is kind of lining up and puts us at a longer timeline than originally hoped," said Perrin. "Before, we were looking at 2024 for that time frame and extending that further. We're optimistic that with being aggressive locally we can bring more events, and bring more visitors up from the United States. We are seeing an increased amount of traffic coming over right now, month by month. We had about 50 per cent of pre-pandemic levels over the summer and the latest report for October is 65 per cent of pre-pandemic levels. So, we're happy that's progressing and increasing."
Perrin said they're also encouraged by what they're experiencing at local hotels.
"We know that we have some really big economic drivers coming in with Silver Stick, for example. All of our hotels in Lambton County are full for a few weekends with those events. So, we're in a positive position moving into next year and as we keep moving forward," he said. "If we can add some events in here and focus on collaborative efforts between our stakeholders, hotel sector, retail, restaurants and accommodations, it's going to be everyone working together and we can generate some great economic spin offs for the community."
Prior to the pandemic, Ontario's tourism industry generated $36 billion annually and Perrin said that number has dropped in half.
"We know that this is a really pivotal and key timeframe right now, and it's going to slow down a bit in the beginning of 2023. But, we're looking at what we can do to combat that, and keep things chugging along as we enter next year. I think even international is another venue that we're looking at options for in 2023, and that Greater Toronto Area (GTA) market as it keeps expanding and bringing it down from the Ontario side."
Perrin said the Tourism Relief Fund and Staycation Tax Credit are great tools to use to put everything together.
"Whether that be for building events or building some more infrastructure and helping our partners. From the tools that have been given to us on provincial funding, Tourism Sarnia-Lambton has helped our stakeholders," he said. "They've received $950,000 in the last two years. We are getting money out to our stakeholders to build things like patios and different improvements to the area. Those are the kinds of programs that we need to really work on to promote and market the area more. The Staycation Tax Credit puts money back in people's pockets after they travel, and hopefully they can use that money to continue travelling. That's a great program that we see direct results from, and more programs like that are definitely being lobbied for. We hope with those in tact, that will help accelerate the timelines included in the Chamber report."
In 2018, Ontario was home to 200,000 tourism businesses.
The sector directly employed 400,000 Ontarians across a range of sub-sectors, including culture and heritage, recreation, entertainment, food and beverage, attractions, transportation, accommodations, and travel services.
It contributed over $5 billion in annual tax revenues for the province and benefited numerous adjacent industries.
"Looking at the reality, we need to fill some labour positions and we know inflation is going to be a moving target on how we combat that," he said. "We're working with our partners to see what we can do to make things affordable for everyone."
