Murky Marine Border Rules For Canada Hurting Tourism

Murky Marine Border Rules For Canada Hurting Tourism

July 25, 2021 ctn_admin

Allowing fully vaccinated Americans to travel to Canada beginning August 9 is great or tourism operators. But ferry businesses and tourism operators in British Columbia and Washington State say a rule change hasn’t been announced for those arriving by sea, and that puts their economic futures at risk.

In a letter last week to the company’s business partners, Clipper Vacations President and CEO David Gudgel said it was great to hear to that Canada will open its borders to fully vaccinated Americans and U.S. residents on August 9. But he said the marine border is currently being treated differently from land and air borders.

“Thus, all messaging remains from the Government of Canada that the marine border remains closed,” said Gudgel, whose company is based in Seattle.

“It is expected that there will be an order in council on August 9th which could potentially align the marine border with the land and sea borders for all borders to be open to non-essential U.S. travel,” Gudgel said. “The challenge is that we will likely not know whether that border opening alignment will happen until very close to August 9^th. It is only at that point of official declaration of an open marine border that we will be able to establish a definitive start of service date as well as a date when we can plan to start accepting ferry and hotel/tour package bookings in our Seattle and Victoria destinations.”

Clipper Vacations operates ferries in and around Victoria and Seattle, Washington. They also do whale watching tours.

Paul Nursey, president and CEO of Tourism Victoria, said the lack of news about marine borders was a “real blow” to his city.

“It seems very random, and we do not understand the difference in why the marine border is being treated separately,” he told Canadian Travel News.

Nursey said the Victoria Clipper and MV Coho ferries deliver 750,000 revenue visitors per year and are responsible for 800 – 1,400 room nights per month at Victoria’s major conference hotels.

He said Clipper officials told him that their phones and “contact us” email inbox are overflowing with requests for travel, but that they have to turn guests away because of the uncertainty regarding the marine border.

The Victoria Times Colonist reports that the Clipper dropped from 200 employees to eight during the pandemic. They’re providing service for Americans heading to the San Juan Islands in Washington state, but the paper said the company can’t really get geared up until they resume sailing to Victoria.

The Canadian entry rules are most important to Clipper, because 85% of their customers are Americans heading to Victoria.