Few happy campers among district tourist operators

The slump in tourism here over the past few years has gotten local tourist camp owners worried about the future.
According to the North Western Ontario Tourism Association (NWOTA), tourism provided jobs for more than 9,900 people in the area and brought some $306 million into the economy in 2001.

This was the peak year over the last 10 years, and as of 2007, the rate of Americans travelling to Ontario was down by 50 percent.
NWOTA president Jerry Fisher, who owns Grassy Narrows Camp in Morson, said that “recently the reason [for this downward trend] is the exchange rates, the economy of the United States, and the gas prices, but the overriding issue is the border.”
In a recent survey that Fisher conducted with 400 past clients, only 25 percent responded and, though he had not fully compiled all of the data, preliminarily he found that bookings already were down 17 percent from last year, which also saw a decrease from previous years.
The respondents reported their reasons for non-return were only partly attributed to money issues, but the tightening on the restriction of minor offences and DWIs (driving while impaired) has been cited as the main reason why many Americans do not want to cross the border.
Since Americans are the main resource to Canadian tourism, this provides a problem.
“[Americans] don’t want to cross [the border] and it is indicated by the double digit growth in Minnesota bookings when we have been in such a decline,” noted Fisher.
Randy Hanson, of Hanson’s Wilderness Lodges in Nestor Falls, along with Tom Pearson of Camp Narrows on Rainy Lake, both claim they are the “lucky ones.”
Both explained that whether or not your camp is doing well in these harsh times depends on your clientele and the type of camp that you run. If you generally cater to the high tax bracket, then you will see less of a decline.
They stressed there will be no increase in bookings, but as long as you can stay close to even, then you’re doing very well in the Ontario tourism business today.
The higher tax bracket is less concerned with spending money on gas and has little qualms with the parity of the dollar. For these reasons, the only thing that’s stopping them is the border.
“Some of my customers get DUIs or DWIs, and when they get a DWI and they can’t come back for ‘X’ amount of years, they don’t even try but I know they will eventually make it back,” noted Pearson.
Besides DWIs and other minor infractions that deem Americans inadmissible to Canada, Hanson believes another problem is Ontario’s poor attempt at attracting new customers.
“The problem is also with the infrastructure,” he stressed. “The Midwest states have done a really good job with attractions along highways and things like that.
“Ontario has not responded to this competition,” he charged. “The rubber tire traffic is not what it used to be because of gas prices but we aren’t even giving them reasons along the way to make the long trip.
“Right now, the [tourism] industry is fragmented . . . we depend on the Americans and that is hard,” Hanson admitted.
Pearson agreed it is hard to attract new customers.
“There are people who want to come up here, new travellers, but nothing is helping them out,” he argued. “They aren’t even given a break. There are just so many negative factors that people don’t even want to try to come.
“They get so turned off, especially by the border.”
Pearson said northern Minnesota is booming.
“If the south end of Rainy Lake is booming and the north end of Rainy Lake isn’t, what does that tell you?” he asked. “It isn’t the gas prices because people are making the trip, and it isn’t the dollar because when it comes down to it, the prices are pretty much the same.
“You do the math.”
“There’s just so much competition because now [Americans] will look at places like Mexico because it is cheaper,” echoed Angie Korzinski, owner/operator of Rusty Myers Flying Service here.
“But they aren’t taking into account things like Canadian resources, with the lake and the silence and the trees and the wildlife and the tranquility.”
“Exchange on the dollar and gas prices are keeping the general clientele thinking that they should stay closer to home, as far as driving is concerned anyway,” offered Hanson.
He also added Canadians are now taking advantage of the higher loonie vis-à-vis the U.S. greenback and moving south, which takes away even more from the Canadian economy.
The decline in tourism not only means less money is being spent here by visitors, but employment also is down in the industry.
“There are less employments, too, because owners are cutting back on what they need to do and are doing more of it themselves, too,” noted Hanson.
“[Owners] aren’t employing who they used to,” he stressed. “It basically just becomes impractical. It’s a major problem of cost outstripping revenue.”
The outlook for the future seems to be optimistic overall, but every camp owner expressed concerns that this slump still may last quite a few more years yet.
“I think we can survive. It is a cyclical thing,” Korzinski said.
“I hope it is, anyway,” she added with a laugh.
“There has been a four-year downward trend and let me put it this way, there aren’t too many happy campers—or campowners for that matter,” observed Pearson.