Scott Hayes, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter | [email protected]
Visitation to Jasper National Park saw a huge rebound this summer and came close to pre-pandemic numbers, says Parks Canada in recently released statistics.
The figures show that September brought in the highest number of visitors to the park for that month with 360,803. That figure is even more remarkable considering how the Chetamon wildfire and its resultant power outage kept multitudes of tourists away from the Jasper townsite.
August鈥檚 visitation rate was the park鈥檚 second-highest attendance ever for that month with 473,267, a number that was still shy of the 2019 record of 495,704 visitations.
That鈥檚 only one way to measure tourism levels, said James Jackson, president and CEO of Tourism Jasper. Hotel occupancy rates and expenditure levels offer far more accurate assessments of the visitors who made an economic impact in town.
鈥淥ccupancy was predictably down in the first two weeks of the month 鈥� the middle 10 days 鈥� right during the wildfire, which is unfortunate, because I would suggest that we were on pace for a record year in terms of occupancy and expenditures.鈥�
The wildfire caused repeat power outages and a period of energy rationing during the middle of September. Jackson said occupancy dropped to at least 50 per cent for several days.
鈥淧arks Canada and the Municipality were not encouraging visitation to Jasper during this time to ensure critical infrastructure services were available to sustain the residents of Jasper,鈥� Parks Canada stated in a press release.
鈥淭he impact to the tourism industry during the first two weeks of September from cancellations and reduced foot traffic in Jasper was substantial.鈥�
Traditionally, September would have occupancy rates at approximately 90 per cent of available rooms, not including home accommodations. Last month, that number reached only 75 per cent.
For Jackson, the fact that occupancy came back even to that level speaks to how quickly tourism bounced back.
鈥淚 think that speaks to the strength of the market demand for Jasper.鈥�
That bounce remained well into October due in large part to the unseasonably warm weather and the Dark Sky Festival.
As for measuring expenditures, Jackson said the most commonly used metric was called average daily rate, or ADR.
The ADR for both hotel rooms and for the town itself climbed significantly. It鈥檚 a really strong indicator of how healthy a local economy is.
鈥淎gain, that speaks to the demand for Jasper experiences: the visitor is willing to pay more for it,鈥� Jackson said.
鈥淎s part of that, you'll start to see expenditures across the destination in other ways. Restaurant expenditures, retail, attraction and experience expenditures all increase proportionately, which is fantastic.鈥�
Parks Canada noted that visitation estimates are based on traffic counts only and do not account for the complexities of the impacts of the wildfire and power outage on visitation.
Recognizing the increase in those numbers, Parks is also aware of an increase in traffic congestion. The press release stated that it is committed to developing new methods to manage visitation in popular areas, including trip planning, promoting both shoulder-seasons and less-sensitive areas of national parks, and also making improvements to transportation.
Some of its solutions include the , promoting carpooling and exploring regional transit options.
