InnFocus Fall 2021

y Ingrid Jarrett, President & CEO
With 18+ months of the pandemic under our belt, we continue to
experience a constantly changing landscape of uncertainty. In 2019,
none of us could have imagined the hardship and challenges that laid
ahead. The benchmark of the business volumes from 2019, that so
greatly contributed to our national and provincial economy, will continue
to be the measurement for relief and recovery measures moving forward.
And with our constantly evolving atmosphere, the predictions from
trusted analysts for future travel and sector recovery continue to roll
in; some of which are encouraging, most of which are based on the
unknowns such as border activity and protocols for countries across
the globe. The good news, however, is that Canada has initiated steps
forward for reopening with relaxed measures for US and international
visitors. We are all eager to support the specifics of the reopening plan—
abiding by protocols will hold Canadians safe—while at the same time,
encouraging a resurgence of our hospitality economy.
In June and July, we worked diligently with our industry partners and
members of government to develop the Restart Toolkit for Step 3 of the
BC provincial restart plan, ensuring that operators had all the necessary
tools and resources needed to move forward into the next phase of our
reopening. The key continues to be for residents, travellers, and our
industry to have a clear understanding of restrictions, recommendations,
and the specifics on how to move forward operationally. By the time
this article publishes, we anticipate that we will be in Step 4 of our
provincial restart and operators will be able to find the fourth iteration of
our Communications Toolkit on our website.
Currently, we have two incredibly significant pieces of work we are
committed to, the first being continued fiscal relief for our industry both
provincially and federally. This will take the form of supporting programs to
ensure that between now and spring of 2022, the financial burden can be
eased to keep businesses in business and ensure the current workforce
can be retained. The second is the severe workforce shortage that we
now face. We know this is not new, but the pandemic has exacerbated
the issue and removed significant portions of our workforce by way of
the travel restrictions, border closures, and COVID-19 policy restrictions.
We have also supported the need for health care workers, long-term care
workers, and vaccination clinic workers with the hospitality workforce,
which we now need to ensure is reengaged.
At the BC Hotel Association, we have a fierce resolve to ensure we
continue to work with partners federally and provincially to find new
access to a hospitality workforce. We must explore this path through
training and education; international partnerships; immigration; and
ensuring that the historic programs, which at one time served us so
well, are once again reignited prior to 2022.
This summer, we faced a dreadful fire season, which has devastated
our province’s tourism season, and threatened the safety of residents
across BC who were forced to evacuate their homes. We have worked
daily with our partners at Emergency Management BC (EMBC) and a
large selection of our membership to support the need for safe shelter
for evacuees. This is not the first time our industry has gone above and
beyond the call of duty to help our province’s vulnerable populations,
and I suspect it will not be the last.
As we have witnessed over the past few months in many parts of
our province, it has been challenging to strike a balance between
encouraging travel to parts of the province while navigating COVID-19
restrictions, the workforce crisis, evacuation orders, and lack of demand
due to smoky conditions. We continue to share Destination BC’s “know
before you go” messaging and encourage all operators to do the same
to keep travellers informed on real-time conditions.
Looking further to the future, our team is currently working with our
partners at Tourism Industry Association of BC (TIABC) on the 2022
Tourism and Hospitality conference, which is being held in Prince
George March 8-11. We are excited to be planning an in-person event
once again and to bring our sector together for the most inspiring,
educational conference of the year. We look forward to welcoming you
and seeing you in person.
Finally, I’d like to take a moment to thank our Chair of the Board, Bryan
Pilbeam, and our board of directors for their encouragement, support,
and leadership over the past 18 months. We are all in this together, and
it is remarkable to have such an amazing team of professionals who care
so deeply about the industry leading this organization.
I encourage all of you to be kind with yourselves, pay attention to your
own wellbeing, and rest assured we are doing everything possible to
support you during this immensely difficult time. Our team is here for you,
and we encourage you to please reach out if you have any questions
or need any support.
4 InnFocus