Tourists to Vancouver Island urged to be patient amid BC Ferries issues: industry

As BC Ferries continues to deal with consistent service issues, the tourism industry on Vancouver Island is hoping people are being patient.

The recent problems plaguing the ferry system include an ongoing staffing shortage and most recently, a mechanical breakdown on an aging vessel that led to several cancellations on the Horseshoe Bay-Departure Bay route.

In the face of that, Anthony Everett, CEO of 4VI, formerly known as Tourism Vancouver Island, says they’re now helping BC Ferries with its recruitment efforts.

“One of the things we have been trying to do is to share more broadly what they need for hiring and we’ve never done that before. So, we have shared that through some corporate channels, that BC Ferries is hiring, and these kinds of collaborative solutions that we’ve never done before are in play for us and we can probably do more of that ourselves to help BC Ferries,” Everett said.

Everett says they rely so heavily on BC Ferries that he’s hoping they can get back to service as usual soon.

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“It’s not a great situation, that’s all I can say about that. We live on an island. We reap the benefits of living on an island we’re dependent on the ferry service. There are more challenges that I’ve been somewhat surprised by and that’s the staffing. And why I’m surprised is it never ceases to amaze me how acute that problem is and when BC Ferries has it, I’m thinking, ‘Wow.’ It’s one things hotels and restaurants and things to have that but I hadn’t expected the level of cancellation due to staffing that we’re seeing and that is troubling and hopefully they can get on top of that,” Everett said.

He hopes the system can also find solutions to its staffing and mechanical issues, but in the meantime, he says people — heading in either direction — need to know they could be waiting a while to catch a sailing in some circumstances.

“All of us when we’re travelling anywhere right now have to think differently about how we’re getting there and there’s just a level of flexibility and patience that is really hard on all of us to have. I have had some challenges recently getting to and from the island. It never feels great but I’m hoping people have some patience with this. The reality is, I think for the foreseeable future, we’re going to have some challenges. I don’t think there’s an easy answer to this, I wish there was, but there doesn’t seem to be one and I’ll remind everyone this is a global issue,” he said.

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Despite that, Everett feels confident about number of visitors to Vancouver Island as he says their statistics so far this year show they’re on par with pre-pandemic figures.

“We’re projecting a very strong year here, if not close to what it was prior to the pandemic. And when I say that a year ago, I was concerned about activity providers because they weren’t as busy and all of them seem to be rebounding quite strongly this year. I think there’s always room for improvement there until there’s a real free flow of international visitors that are paying for those experiences. But from tip to tip, it’s a busy year this year and we’re all feeling this desire that people are having to experience Vancouver Island or go other places in the province,” he said.

Airlines are facing similar issues around delays and cancellations, amid low staffing levels. Major airports have been seeing luggage piling up as people wait for hours to catch a flight whether domestic or international. This comes as both Air Canada and WestJet confirm they’re slashing their summer schedules in a bid to better handle airport congestion.