The effects of the COVID-19 outbreak are being felt by the tourism industry in Greater Saint John and throughout the province.
Large gatherings are on hold and many events have been postponed or cancelled due to the ongoing pandemic.
Victoria Clarke, executive director of Discover Saint John, said they have lost close to $4 million worth of business to date.
Clarke told members of the city’s growth committee last week that many of those events have not been postponed or rescheduled.
“They have commitments further years. A lot of our business that we do is in three-to-five-year increments and so they’ve made commitments to other communities for future years so that is true lost business,” said Clarke.
Revenue from the city’s new hotel level, which was expected to total $1.4 million in 2020, is also being impacted as many rooms sit empty.
But Clarke said they are already looking ahead to what things will look like once the state of emergency restrictions are lifted.
She said the agency plans to launch a New Brunswick-facing tourism campaign encouraging people from around the province to visit Greater Saint John.
“We know there’s pent-up demand for people to come to restaurants, pent-up demand for retail, pent-up demand for our wonderfully accessible natural assets,” said Clarke.
