Time will tell how much of an impact the COVID-19 virus will have on the local whale-watching industry.
Stephen Gabrysh, the owner/operator of Campbell River Whale Watching Tours says it’s a rapidly changing environment.
“I would say things are moving so fast, it’s really hard to tell how it’s going to affect the whale watching industry or tourism for that matter in Campbell River,” he said.
Gabrysh said at this point he hasn’t seen bookings go down but he added that it’s still early in the season.
“Most of our bookings aren’t for this period of time, most of our bookings are into June and July and our cancellation policy is pretty short notice – people can cancel up to 48 hours in advance – different from a resort or something that has a longer term of cancellation policy. So nobody really has a reason to be cancelling quite yet.”
In terms of cancellations, Gabrysh’s company hasn’t been impacted simply because the season isn’t in gear.
Gabrysh said he’s more nervous about the broader threat that coronavirus presents, than his company and the industry as a whole.
“I would say I’m less nervous about our company and the industry in general, and more thinking about the health and welfare of all Canadians and all people around the world at this point in time and that’s what we need to be thinking more about versus the economic health of our local industry at this point,” he added.
He said these are nervous times for everyone in the tourism industry.
“I think everybody is just taking an uncharted territory-look at this, and focusing on the health side of things,” Gabrysh said.
As well, Gabrysh said the company is taking every precaution to keep its employees safe.
“We’ve asked all our employees to work from home, we have people who are involved in marketing and other sides of the business this time of year, so we’ve asked everybody to change face-to-face meetings to things like Skype meetings, to limit our social interactions and what-not,” he said.
The whale watching season typically starts this month and the busy time is in July. The season winds down in the middle of October.
“We weren’t planning on putting any more boats in the water until right at the end of March,” Gabrysh said.
