{"id":67952,"date":"2022-10-28T13:48:30","date_gmt":"2022-10-28T19:48:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/?p=67952"},"modified":"2022-11-29T14:52:10","modified_gmt":"2022-11-29T21:52:10","slug":"as-covid-entry-restrictions-eliminated-alberta-tourism-thriving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/2022\/10\/28\/as-covid-entry-restrictions-eliminated-alberta-tourism-thriving\/","title":{"rendered":"Alberta tourism is thriving as COVID entry restrictions are eliminated"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Easing burdens:<\/strong> The first floor of Travel Alberta on Oct. 24, 2022. From 2021 to 2023, Travel Alberta will invest $15 million annually via its Tourism Investment Program. (Photo by Jimmy Huang \/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T<\/span>he Canadian government has lifted travel restrictions effective Oct. 1<\/a>, bringing international tourists back to Alberta.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>I felt relief that we can come to travel,” said Leticia Arista, a tourist from Mexico. “As soon as I knew that the government won\u2019t ask about a COVID-19 test and all that, I decided to come to Calgary.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the first seven months of 2022,\u00a0 more than a million international passengers touched down in Alberta. According to the Alberta Tourism Market Monitor<\/a>, the number of air passengers arriving and departing from the Calgary and Edmonton international airports also increased by 64.4 per cent from the same period in 2021.<\/p>\n

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Source: Alberta Tourism Market Monitor | Graphic by Jimmy Huang\/The Press<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The tourism resurgence is helping the local job market. The Alberta Tourism Market Monitor outlines solid year-to-date job growth with 134,000 jobs added to the accommodation and food services sectors as of August \u2014 an increase of approximately 26.3 per cent.<\/p>\n

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Source: Alberta Tourism Market Monitor | Graphic by Jimmy Huang\/The Press<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cEverything came back so quickly,” said Chelsea Moriarity, market director of human resources for the Calgary Marriott Downtown and Delta Calgary Downtown. “The summer was a lot busier than we had anticipated it being, so we were recruiting really quickly.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor Q4, we\u2019ll be looking to ramp up in the next couple of weeks for our Christmas season hiring. It could be anywhere between 30 and 40 people for the Christmas season for both banquets and kitchen together.”<\/p>\n

Although a boom might be in the works for the Alberta travel industry, business travel, a mainstay for the accommodation sector, may require years of recovery.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe meetings and convention sector are about a three-year planning cycle,”said Danielle Vlemmiks, vice-president of strategy, research, and communications for Travel Alberta. “When they stopped planning for two years, we’re still recovering from that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re trying to get people to either rebook or to plan convention conferences here.”<\/p>\n

Before the pandemic, the workforce was relatively stable, partly due to seasonal and temporary foreign workers filling the gap in the industry. As tourism rises once again, small-scale shortages still exist.<\/p>\n

Moriarity pointed out that the new rules allowing international students to temporarily work over 20 hours starting Nov. 15<\/a>, is bound to relieve labour shortages. Additionally, a huge rise in Ukrainian newcomers<\/a> can help fill the gap.<\/p>\n

Travel Alberta\u2019s Tourism Investment Program<\/a> is investing $15 million annually from 2021 to 2023, with $3.25 million set aside for indigenous tourism.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re working with businesses to really increase not only the ability to do more things in tourism jobs, but the perception of tourism as a long-term career opportunity,\u201d said Vlemmiks.<\/p>\n

Tourism is alive and well after the pandemic, Moriarity said, but the changes to the way business operates are here to stay.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe went through a lot of workforce planning, and that means you can do a multitude of roles,\u201d said Moriarity. \u201cWe\u2019re kind of bringing people together and utilizing all of their skills, and that’s really helped with workforce planning.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Tourism bounces back:<\/strong> Cars wait outside the departure area of the Calgary International Airport on Oct. 24, 2022. As of Aug. 2022, 860,400 passengers have arrived at Calgary International Airport. (Photo by Jimmy Huang \/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[dropcap]W[\/dropcap]ith the end of Covid approaching and after the Canadian government lifted the COVID-19 travel restrictions on October 1, tourism is gradually thriving in Alberta. [ READ MORE ]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":791,"featured_media":67976,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_ef_editorial_meta_text_assignment-slug":"S2 Tourism Thriving JH","footnotes":""},"categories":[1432,3,13],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-67952","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business-jobs","8":"category-city","9":"category-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/791"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67952"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68611,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67952\/revisions\/68611"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}