Prince Rupert Small Business Task Force Launches Resident Travel Sentiment Survey

Prince Rupert, June 12^th, 2020 – The Prince Rupert and District Chamber of Commerce, Tourism Prince Rupert, and the City of Prince Rupert’s Economic Development Office, through their ongoing partnership in the Small Business Recovery Task Force, are launching a new survey to collect information about Prince Rupert residents’ travel intentions and level of comfort for the 2020 summer season.

With the move to Phase 3 of the provincial government’s Restart Plan likely to be announced in late June, intra-provincial travel will be encouraged once again. Once travel outside of BC residents’ home communities is allowed, tourism-dependant businesses in Prince Rupert will be relying on visitors from elsewhere in BC to help fill the financial gap left by a lack of extra-provincial and international travel, especially given the cancellation of the 2020 cruise season, which was anticipated to generate approximately $1.9 million for Prince Rupert’s local business economy. Tourism Prince Rupert is developing a recovery marketing strategy for the summer of 2020, aimed at supporting the resiliency of our local tourism sector by bringing some additional revenue to local businesses. Before this campaign can be launched, however, it’s important that we understand how Prince Rupert residents feel both about travelling this summer, and about visitors coming to Prince Rupert.

“The tourism sector has been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Tourism Prince Rupert is committed to supporting our local tourism economy through our recovery marketing strategy for this summer. However, now more than ever, it’s important for us to understand how local residents feel about visitors to our community. This survey will be an incredibly useful tool as we continue to plan for tourism recovery in a way that is both supportive and sensitive to residents’ concerns.”

• Ceilidh Marlow, Executive Director, Tourism Prince Rupert

“The Travel Sentiment survey will assist our Small Business Recovery Task Force to have a better understanding of our community's stance on visitors coming into Prince Rupert. The Prince Rupert & District Chamber of Commerce understands that our local tourism businesses and organizations have been greatly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and we are focused on providing strategies to help support our local tourism sector. This survey is a necessary step to take in order to implement further marketing and tourism specific strategies as we move into Phase 3 of BC's Restart Plan.”

• Michelle Boomars-MacNeill, President, Prince Rupert & District Chamber of Commerce

“With data collected from this survey, the Small Business Recovery Task Force will be able to plan for and mitigate some of the business impacts caused by this pandemic. This will allow the Task Force to further support the local business community and continue helping with local recovery efforts.”

• Paul Vendittelli, Manager of Transportation and Economic Development, City of Prince Rupert

To incentivize participation in our Resident Travel Sentiment Survey, we are offering a prize package of gift cards to local Prince Rupert businesses with a value of $300 for one lucky winner, to be drawn from everyone who participates in the survey.