Dear Accommodation Community,
With the rise in COVID-19 cases in our province, and as we approach our typical flu-season, along with back to school angst, there have been concerns over how this will impact our industry on the road ahead.
In yesterday's latest modelling presentation, Dr.Bonnie Henry addressed these concerns, explaining that, despite the rise, we are in a much better place of understanding the virus, how to prevent the spread, and in tracking our cases than we were in March. She also stated that while while two metres of physical distancing is the ideal, "one metre is also good if you're with the same group of people you know and see regularly, such as work colleagues, classmates." As many businesses look at when to return to work, this is greatly impactful in alleviating concerns as we know it can be done safely.
We also know that if we continue to take personal responsibility around our health and wellness, and follow the rules, we are apt to see an autumn season that isn’t as dire as it could be without our resolve to look after ourselves and our loved ones. Stay home if you're not feeling well, wash your hands often, ensure physical distancing, and if you're unable to physical distance, wear a mask. Be kind, respectful and comply with protocols businesses have set to ensure health and safety.
Things have greatly changed since the spring. We now have a significantly greater understanding of the nature of the virus. We have been able to adapt and overcome, adopting new standards and ways of operating to accommodate our 'new normal.' We now know how to conduct business with the utmost safely and have demonstrated our ability to do so over the past months in a truly outstanding way. We will continue to showcase our industry's ability to protect our guests, employees and communities as we welcome visitors over the coming months and we want each of you to share this confidence in doing so. As we enter our fall and winter seasons, we do encourage each of you to relook at and fine tune safety standards and protocols to ensure they are in line with your fall and winter offerings, particularly for hotels and ski resorts.
We continue to work on protocols for meetings and events, raising the restrictions on meetings, bubble travel for specific sectors, and evaluating new ways of doing business to ensure we change where we need to, capture what we can and support you, our industry in every way possible.
And as our visitor markets have greatly changed, we also encourage our members to pivot their strategies to attract new markets for Q4. For example, there is strong demand anticipated this fall and winter from Canadian Snowbirds who find themselves unable to go south or looking for alternative accommodation. We are working with the BC Lodging and Campground Association along with the RV association to be a caveat for the snowbird market and position BC as the wonderful winter destination it is. It will no doubt be welcome business for hotels and accommodations from November to April if we are successful.
We would like to thank everyone who attended our webinar in partnership with TIABC that explored the current state and future of our tourism industry in BC. Should you have any questions as a result of the webinar, we encourage you to reach out to us and we'd be happy to clarify. We also participated in the PRMIA webinar as a panelist this week on Risk and the Economy, and the Comox Valley Webinar for Tourism and Economic Development. All Webinars are included below with the slide deck and recording and are housed on our BCHA.com website. Our understanding of your needs is crucial to our advocacy efforts and we implore our members of industry to be in touch with any questions or concerns. The emails we received this week included many with concerns regarding the short term rental market, predominately from community citizens voicing frustration over the lack of regulations and oversight. We will be hosting a Short Term Rental webinar in the coming weeks with our position and recommendations for policies for municipalities.
I wish you a wonderful labour day weekend with your family and friends.
Stay safe,
Ingrid Jarrett
President and CEO
British Columbia Hotel Association
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Government Announces Extension of CEBA and BCAP |
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Earlier this week, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Chrystia Freeland, announced that the application deadline for the Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) will be extended from August 31 to October 31, 2020.
Both Minister Freeland and her colleague, Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade, Mary Ng, reiterated that the federal government continues to work with financial institutions to make the CEBA available to those with qualifying payroll or non-deferrable expenses that have so far been unable to apply due to not operating from a business banking account. More information on these changes will be available soon.
Minister Freeland also announced that the Business Credit Availability Program (BCAP) is extended to June 2021. As a reminder, through BCAP, the government supports the flow of additional credit for businesses to maintain operations and keep employees on the payroll. BCAP is comprised of the Business Development Bank of Canada’s Co-lending Program for SMEs, and its Mid Market Financing Program, and Export Development Canada’s Loan Guarantee for SMEs.
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The BC Meetings & Events Industry Working Group has release their new B.C. Meetings & Events Safe Restart Guidelines draft. This document will be the basis for the eventual re-opening of the meetings and events sector across the province. These extensive guidelines have been created for all types of events and operators.
Vetted by WorkSafe BC, the BC Centre for Disease Control, and the Provincial Health Ministry, these standards align with the requirements mandated by the health authority showing that the Meetings & Events industry take the public health and risk mitigation seriously.
This is a critical step to demonstrate commitment across the industry sectors and will prove competency to the provincial government and health authorities. It will ensure that the industry can conduct meetings and events in a safe, controlled, and effective manner. The end goal is to encourage the government and PHO to loosen restrictions on meetings and events with a phased approach.
Created by a voluntary, cross-section group in June, the group is working to advocate for a phased restart plan approach. The focus is to bring the industry together for support in adopting the guidelines and engaging the Tourism Ministry.
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Greater Vancouver Board of Trade Releases Recovery Plan on Helping Business Survive |
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Report includes a focus on the visitor economy
In its report, the Board compels the Province to focus on immediate effective measures that help businesses recover and get people back to work, without losing sight of efforts that underpin our competitiveness, and that foster the future prosperity of BC. The entire apparatus of government should be focused on economic recovery and supporting the people of British Columbia.
TIABC presented to the GVBoT Policy Committee in May to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on tourism and hospitality and the needs of the sector going forward. Among the focus areas, the report specifically references BC's visitor economy:
Support sectors that are positive economic multipliers for the region and province, such as tourism and travel
- Seek innovative solutions that allow for safe international travel as well as domestic travel to keep our regions connected.
- Incentivize travel within the province and country in part by lower costs for travel through a waiver of PST on items such as hotels and flights for B.C. residents and/or broadening the exemption from the carbon tax on aviation fuel to include intra-provincial flights.
- Fund marketing campaigns to encourage tourism and travel demand.
- Coordinate with public health and various government ministries, as well as new technologies to support safe travel.
- Take a science-based approach to travel restrictions, including the easing of travel restrictions from locations with a low prevalence of COVID-19, especially within Canada.
- Support new technology that facilitates rapid testing and screening processes.
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go2HR needs your input on how they can best meet the needs of industry. Now more than ever, go2HR needs to be supporting businesses on the road to recovery. To inform their future direction, they need to hear industry’s voice. By completing the survey, you offer your valuable insights on the key human resource issues facing the industry and how go2HR can best help the industry in dealing with these issues going forward.
Whether or not you are an existing user of go2HR's services, they want to hear from you! The survey is open until September 18th. Your input will help shape a new strategic plan for go2HR that will be shared in the new year.
Any information you provide will be compiled by Qatalyst, held confidential and reported only in summary form with the responses of other participants.
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BCHA & TIABC State of the Industry Webinar |
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Thank you for everyone who joined the BCHA & TIABC webinar earlier this week outlining the state of the tourism and hospitality industry in BC. We were able to provide updates surrounding border closures, events & meetings sectors, insurance updates, as well as many important topics currently affecting our industry across the province.
A recording of the webinar as well as the presentation is available below.
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PRMIA Looking Ahead in Canada: Risk Insights from industry experts Confirmation |
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PRMIA Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver explore the risks and economic consequences of COVID-19 on select Canadian industries, including agriculture, energy and hospitality; how the emerging risks are being managed in the long run, what their respective futures look like and how they can come back stronger.
Featuring BCHA President & CEO Ingrid Jarrett as a panelist.
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Our ongoing commitment to ensure as our industry recovers, we support energy savings and sustainability in the long run. The success of the GoGreen energy analysis and savings opportunities dove tails perfectly with this program. We invite you, and encourage you, as General Managers, and for your Engineering/maintenance teams to join us. BCHA and GreenStep will be hosting a webinar and open forum to outline how GreenStep’s EcoFund Verified program can help BCHA members get ahead of rising energy costs, save hundreds of thousands of dollars on energy and carbon taxes, and increase the value of your business; all while meeting the growing consumer demand for responsible business.
In this presentation, you will learn:
- How the EcoFund works with examples and financial models from current customers demonstrating over $1 million in opportunity for an average-sized BC hotel
- How you can increase your profitability by 50-80% through strategic investments in energy efficiency and sustainability
- How you can benchmark your energy performance against other businesses in your industry
- Trends in the increasing consumer demand for responsible business that can be met through EcoFund Verified.
At the end of the webinar, participants will be invited to receive a free opportunity analysis for their own hotels.
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DBC Marketing Update for MVRRTF |
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Destination BC is continually working to inspire BC residents to get out and explore the province in the absence of international travelers. With their explore BC campaign, they are highlighting various destinations across BC. Below is their presentation made earlier this week to the Metro Vancouver Response and Recovery Task Force outlining the current and future marketing around this initiative. |
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Member Offer: Duzenberry Consulting
Managed IT Support
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Duzenberry Consulting has been in business over 15 years and is a local, family owned business that specializes in Managed IT Services offering everything from personalized technology needs such as monitoring, routine maintenance and support, to updating hardware and software and handling day- to- day issues and emergencies. On top of all of this they also offer a helpdesk service which is unparalleled in the industry - whether you can’t find a specific file, your PC is being quirky or slow, or maybe it’s decided to crash - Duzenberry is there to help and provide a solution when you need it most.
What sets them apart is they are proactively monitoring systems instead of being reactive, ensuring that when the unthinkable happens - they are already on top of that issue so that your business can continue to run and avoid being potentially down or worse you’re unable to run your business. Through a personalized service provider like Duzenberry Consulting Managed IT Support and Solutions, they operate as a vital part of your business - working together on a constant basis to ensure your business stays safe and fully operational. See flyer for their package offering or reach out to ariana@duzenberry.com for additional packages and services. |
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Scale your marketing efforts, strengthen your online presence, and deliver compelling content that speaks to your current fans and connects with prospective visitors.
Destination BC is offering three new webinars on digital marketing to help you manage your online presence and get the most out of your website
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As part of our education pillar, BCHA continues to offer new courses and webinars from our education partners. Through our education series, BCHA members and hospitality professionals may access tools for continued growth within the hospitality industry at a significantly reduced price. We encourage you to take this time to explore the courses below: |
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Click here to sign up for any of the upcoming courses or webinars or learn more about all the education BCHA has to offer.
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More overnight visitors going to Central Okanagan but...
Visitors have been coming back to Kelowna, since the B.C. government started encouraging within-province travel in late June as part of its Phase 3 restart plan . But higher visitation isn't necessarily translating into more business and revenue...
Read more
www.cbc.ca
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B.C. labour minister promises vague help for tourism...
"The concept of a 'pledge,' I don't understand it," said Ingrid Jarrett, president and CEO of the B.C. Hotel Association. "I don't understand the framework of it, and to throw that language out there without any conversation." The union...
Read more
vancouversun.com
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Opinion: B.C. tourism is on life support. We must act...
As the summer draws to a close and the provincial government nears a decision on how to allocate its $1.5-billion recovery package, it would be easy for some people to make the false assumption that a strong August for some tourism operators...
Read more
www.bcbusiness.ca
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