The year 2019 was one where Destination Battlefords laid out big plans to grow tourism in the area.
Then came the COVID-19 pandemic, and all those plans were washed away.
That was basically the story told at a decidedly downcast Destination Battlefords annual general meeting, held at the Tropical Inn on Tuesday.
Its purpose was to look back on the activities of 2019 and present its financials for that year. But it was the fallout from 2020 that got the most airtime. Executive director Ryan Bater spent much of his time outlining to the board how the organization was impacted by the pandemic shutdowns that decimated travel across the globe.
“This has hit the tourism industry harder than any other industry around the world,” said Bater of the pandemic shutdown. “We have seen considerable amount of hardship with our operators, with our members. It has been a very, very difficult time.”
It has also resulted in reduced generation of funds for their destination marketing program, he said, due to a lot fewer people staying in local hotels.
The organization had gone into 2020 on an optimistic note. Bater told the board that 2019 was “supposed to be our big renewal year,” with a new strategic plan approved by the board and a number of new initiatives, including development of unique historical and cultural assets and of educational programming developed with the school boards such as an ambassadorship program with students.
There was also work on tourism marketing and content development, and leisure marketing and event development. There were high hopes to get all these initiatives up and rolling in 2020.
“We were all wrapped up and ready to go, and then everything changed in March,” said Bater.
As soon as the public health orders came from the province, the visitor centre in the river valley was closed. One staffer stated at the office while Bater worked from home.
In early May, a board meeting was held and Bater said his advice to the board was to discontinue spending money.
“Any spending on marketing at that time would have been wasted,” said Bater. “Nobody was going to be able to come and travel here, nobody would have been interested in visiting. Anyone who was coming wasn’t coming because of an ad we were doing. So my advice was to retain as much financial resources as possible given the threat to the Destination Marketing program.”
Layoffs took place, and all of their marketing projects were discontinued, with Destination Battlefords going into what Bater described as a “maintenance mode.” During that time they also developed a relationship with Tourism Saskatchewan and Destination Canada, and with other destination marketing organizations in the province. Bater took part in twice a week conference calls with those organizations where they exchanged information.
“They weren’t cheery,” said Bater, noting everyone else was in the same boat.
The relationship with Tourism Saskatchewan and Destination Canada has allowed the organization to partner with them to create a complementary campaign to the “Canada Nice” called Battlefords Nice.
The focus is increasing confidence to travel, to show it is safe and what measures are being taken to ensure travellers safety, and letting people know not just that the community is taking measures for their safety, but “how they as travellers can travel safely.”
The idea is to market within Saskatchewan specifically within a two-hour radius. It was noted that research done by Tourism Saskatchewan shows that any travel that was happening this summer is regionalized.
The organization also is focusing on promoting whatever activities are up and running locally. One item being pursued is developing a stay-and-play package, in partnership with participating members of the Battlefords Hotels Association, to offer a reduced rate for green fees with carts at the golf courses in North Battleford and Jackfish Lake.
This was seen as a good opportunity as golf is one of the activities still up and running. The plan is for this program to get up and running this week and for it to continue into September.
Bater also is looking at possible winter opportunities, and would determine how and if Table Mountain plans to operate. Bater also noted snowmobiling was another activity considered reasonably safe and they could do some video vignettes on that.
Bater acknowledged it has been a major change and expects the impact on tourism will last for a while — even if a vaccine comes in.
“We expect to be in some situation related to this until probably the end of 2021. There will be an impact here on our revenues here and on our industry here until at least 2021.”
He noted tourism in the area is driven by events, and until restrictions are lifted and people feel safe to hold events again, “it’s going to be a challenge.”
