B.C. travel and tourism ready as Canada testing rules set to end: industry

As Canada prepares to drop its pre-arrival COVID-19 test requirement for fully vaccinated travellers, B.C.’s tourism industry is gearing up for what it hopes will be a busy few months.

The testing requirement will end as of April 1 for those who have received a full course of an approved COVID-19 vaccine, which does not include boosters. Unvaccinated and partially vaccinated travellers will still be bound by existing testing requirements.

However, the move, which was confirmed Thursday, is welcome news for those in industries hard hit by the pandemic and its related restrictions.

“We have been lobbying actively to try to see those restrictions removed, and now that it’s here, it provides some certainty for our operators going forward. So it’s really good news and well-received,” said Walt Judas, CEO of the Tourism Industry Association of B.C.

He notes in 2019 — before the pandemic — B.C.’s tourism industry brought in $23.3 billion in revenue. That figure dropped to $7 billion in 2020.

“On average, visitors from other countries spend three to five times more than domestic visitors. In a place like Vancouver, for example, while about 25 per cent of the visitors are international, they generate about 46 per cent of the revenue,” Judas explained.

Random testing upon arrival is still going to be in place. However, the government’s decision to drop the mandatory negative pre-arrival test is something many groups have been seeking for several months.

Industry stakeholders have argued the measure deterred international visitors from choosing Canada as a travel destination for several months now.

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In addition to being one more thing travellers have had to add to their to-do lists, pre-departure testing can also be costly, depending on where you are having it done.

“Removing that barrier is a big relief because now we can more aggressively market that we are open for business, that we are welcoming fully vaccinated travellers without restrictions, albeit there is still random testing that may take place. But nonetheless, just the lifting of that restriction will allow more people to travel more freely and we’ll start to see those numbers build back again,” said Judas.

He says people in the tourism industry have heard from would-be visitors that they had cancelled their plans to come to B.C. specifically because of the travel test.

“We heard from a lot of people that were considering travelling … but because of the testing and the uncertainty about the waiting period, etcetera, decided we’re going elsewhere. So there are multiple examples of that all over the province and we just didn’t see the numbers that we might normally see, whether it was during president’s week or during spring break. But with the barrier being lifted, we’ll start to build back again in the months hence,” Judas told CityNews.

In addition to random testing upon arrival, all travellers are still required to fill out the ArriveCan app before entering Canada. Fully vaccinated travellers do not have to isolate if they are randomly selected for testing.

The easing of federal travel measures is part of the government’s step-by-step path to recovery. On Thursday, federal Tourism Minister Randy Boissonnault appealed directly to potential tourists, pleading with them to make Canada their next destination.

“Canada has a huge advantage in attracting visitors because they know it is safe to travel to Canada,” he said.