Tourism Medicine Hat executive director Jace Anderson (Photo courtesy of Colton McKee)

By Scott Roblin

Talking Tourism

Summer tourism industry set to take hit amid COVID-19 pandemic

Apr 21, 2020 | 5:51 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Boasting well over 300 days of sunshine per year, Medicine Hat is known as one of the most visited cities by tourists in southern Alberta each summer.

The summer of 2020 is expected to be quite different for the local tourism industry however, with the COVID-19 pandemic forcing cancellations and postponements of events left and right.

These past five weeks have been a shock to the system for Tourism Medicine Hat executive director Jace Anderson.

“There’s no playbook, there’s no rules set with these four steps and then you’re into the next phase,” said Anderson. “We’re really feeling right now like we’re in triage. We’re addressing as best we can some of those immediate needs of our industry stakeholders and partners.”

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Summer staples such as the Spectrum Festival, WPCA chuckwagon races, and Medicine Hat JazzFest have all been either cancelled or postponed with visitors to the ‘Gas City’ drying up for local hotels.

Strain has also been placed on local restaurants and small businesses who are trying to remain open, a stressful environment that Anderson has seen firsthand.

“Our entrepreneurial community and small business community that makes up such a large part of the tourism and service industry, they need immediate support,” said Anderson. “They need immediate attention to help them bridge to the next step.”

The two biggest local events left untouched by COVID-19 are the Medicine Hat Exhibition & Stampede and Canada Day celebrations, which are still up in the air.

Stampede week specifically is one of the biggest annual economic drivers for the city of Medicine Hat, averaging over 40,000 people through the gates every year.

Medicine Hat Exhibition & Stampede general manager Jim MacArthur said he’s aware at how key their event is to the health of the city’s tourism industry.

“We are the largest festival that takes place in Medicine Hat and southeastern Alberta, so it’s important for a lot of people,” said MacArthur. “There’s a lot of young people that depend on a bit of extra income during the summer, usually helping out at the Stampede.”

One of the biggest hurdles Tourism Medicine Hat is facing in the coming weeks and months will be the number of people willing to attend events of varying size once established again.

The expectation is that a local focus will be taken on tourism until visitors will feel comfortable travelling to Medicine Hat again once safe.

“When we get that green light from health ministers to begin to get out, the next step for that is going to be consumer confidence,” said Anderson. “We need our community to embrace and to welcome the getting back out and getting to normal, whatever that new normal is really going to be and it’s going to be a staged roll out. As we begin to get back out into our community, visitors will likely return to us.”

Tourism Medicine Hat say they are a part of the City of Medicine Hat’s Economic Recovery Team and have been in conversations with Travel Alberta about the proper steps forward.

While there’s still plenty of work ahead before tourism gets back to normal, Anderson is confident they reach that point in time.

“There’s a high degree of interest in regards to what recovery could look like, but what that rebuild phase will take to get us to recovery,” said Anderson.