The McEwan family from Alberta hit the beach in Kelowna on Wednesday, but this year they had to skip the Airbnb they stayed at last year.
“The apartments weren’t available,” said Albertan Dustin McEwan. “Short-term rentals, I guess.”
The family opted for a hotel, but it seems that tourists like them are not coming in droves this season.
“I’m not just feeling it, I’m living it,” said Wyn Lewis, owner of Vibrant Vine Winery. “We’re basically at 60 percent of last year.”
Lewis said some members of his wine club have indicated that new legislation restricting short-term rentals is keeping them away.
“I think there are, you know, unintended consequences with the recent law that was passed with Airbnb. What we’re hearing is a wave of people saying, that’s why you’re empty … look around here,” he said, pointing to an empty tasting room.
Tourism Kelowna acknowledged that July appears to be lower in terms of visitor numbers than previous years.
“It definitely feels like it’s a little bit less,” said Lisanne Ballantyne, president and CEO of Tourism Kelowna.
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But Ballantyne said given the strong month of June, the numbers are likely to be in balance.
“I think once we get our numbers in, we can assume that attendance will be at the same level as last year,” Ballantyne said.
She added that it doesn’t make sense to blame the seemingly slow month of July solely on the new rules for short-term rentals.
“We think back to the incredible three-week heatwave we had that brought down the number of visitors,” Ballantyne said. “Think back to the fact that we had a WestJet strike. We lost some of the airlines in mid-June, which affected other people’s decisions about their vacations in July. Think back to the fact that we’re sometimes uncertain about what the air is going to be like … there are a number of factors that affect tourism.”
British Columbia Tourism Minister Lana Popham told Global News that tourism is declining globally, not just in Kelowna or British Columbia
“We’re not doing too badly on the tourism front, but we would definitely like to see more traffic,” Popham said.
She said one of the most important ways to support tourism is to ensure that there is housing available for hospitality workers, and the new short-term rental legislation aims to do this.
“It’s a huge priority for the government to get people into housing so they can support the economy, and we’re going to look at what that looks like for short-term rentals.”
Ballantyne added that Tourism Kelowna will have a better idea of the type of tourism season Kelowna is experiencing when they look at visitor statistics in a few weeks.
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
Klaudia Van Emmerik
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