Bad news for the tourism industry.
A new report from the Ontario Chamber of Commerce says the province's tourism industry is not expected to fully recover from the pandemic until 2025.
The joint report with the Tourism Industry Association of Ontario contains a host of recommendations, from tax incentives to cannabis tourism.
Speaking on AM800's The Shift with Patty Handysides, Gordon Orr, Chief Executive Officer of Tourism Windsor Essex Pelee Island, says locally the tourism industry in Windsor and Essex County has been hit hard due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
He says a reason that locally the industry suffered, was due to COVID-19 restrictions at the Ambassador Bridge.
"With the removal of the ArriveCan app on October 1st, we started to see more American's coming back. So, the industry is still really in its reopening phase, and we know it's going to be a tough winter. The summer season typically is when the tourism and hospitality industry make the revenues that sustain them throughout the entire year, and this was another very tough summer."
He says they noticed a shift in tourism interests following the pandemic.
"We know that wellness tourism is very, very important with the pandemic. There's been a whole shift in the mentality of people that want to make sure that their lifestyle trends have changed, and they're looking more on the wellness side. We found that nature-based tourism was very, very strong. And outdoor adventures continue to be very, very important. And agritourism is right for growth too."
Orr says more people are looking to do stress-free and relaxing activities since the pandemic.
"Stress has been and mental health has been such a focus. The pandemic has changed us as a society. And we are looking for things that relax us, make us feel comfortable and enjoyable, and we want to celebrate those moments with family and friends. So I think there's a lot of things that can be done to try and capitalize on those assets that we have."
The report also says that tourism businesses in Ontario, on average, are only generating 64 percent of the revenues they saw in 2019.
It also says that seven in 10 businesses have taken on debt to stay afloat during these troubling times.