Devastating Impact
COVID-19 Tourism Workforce Impact Survey Results Released
Tourism has been severely limited since COVID-19 closed international borders. Statistics Canada’s tracking of travel to and from Canada showed that international travel came to a standstill by the end of March, with trips to Canada by travellers from abroad down 54.2% from February. International travel remained low in May, the latest month for which complete data is available, as arrivals from the United States were down 96.6% from May 2019 and arrivals from other countries were down 97.9%.[1] Leading indicators of cross-border travel and air arrivals for June indicate that little change in these trends should be expected this summer.
The results show that only a fraction of tourism businesses are operating at full capacity. Many remain closed and many intend to remain closed this summer. Those that have reopened or expanded operations since the strictest COVID-19 containment measures were lifted are hiring back former staff, but employment is expected to remain well below the levels seen in 2019.
