VIDEO: Tourism sector sees light at the end of the tunnel

"It's been a difficult year," said Kelowna Tourism President and CEO Lisanne Ballantyne, "but it's been a year of resiliency too."

The light at the end of the tunnel for the local tourism sector could depend on how well the immunization process unfolds.

"That's what we're all watching now, isn't it? It's the vaccine," said Ballantyne, who heads up an organization that's had its wings clipped severely by the circumstances around the pandemic.

"It's difficult as a tourism destination organization," she said. "We can't market right now until those health orders ease up."

The organization has struggled to work with COVID-19 restrictions tightening, loosening and tightening again as it's all unfolded in waves.

"It's challenging for us as a marketing organization to push out advertising into the rest of Canada," said Ballantyne, "and then cancel it and pull it back in on one or two days notice, but that is nothing compared to what these businesses have to go through."

The good news is the Okanagan is uniquely positioned for a strong comeback.

"We're hearing that the interior and the Okanagan will lead in travel recovery," she said.

Tourism in Kelowna is 90% Canadian, and most of the short-haul variety, meaning Vancouver and Calgary.

"That is the first travel audience that is ready to start travelling and can travel when it's safe again," explained Ballantyne.

And there is a new trend, Canadian companies which like to give trips as performance incentives are looking for domestic alternatives.

"We are starting to get a lot of inquiries, especially from eastern Canadian companies who would normally send their top achievers say, to places like Mexico for the week as an incentive," she said.

Still, Ballantyne said Tourism Kelowna is trying to activate locally. She encourages locals to make the best of travel restrictions and plan a "staycation".

The businesses you support by doing that, are depending on it.