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By Chantal Wagner

City hotels seeing locals book staycations

Mar 3, 2021 | 2:07 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Like many businesses, the hospitality industry as a whole has been hit terribly over the last year.

That’s according to Elisha Ammann executive director of the Medicine Hat Accommodation Association.

And in our city, it’s some of the lowest occupancy rates she has seen in her 15 years in the industry.

Ammann expects the most meaningful change for the sector won’t happen until the majority of the population has been vaccinated.

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But in the meantime, people are taking advantage of staycations.

Hotel pools are open for use by single households, which has made a difference in attracting visitors.

“There are a lot of local people who want to get out of their house, reasonably so and so they’re coming to the hotels and they’re booking the pool time with their family and getting a little out-of-house experience.”

She says the local industry is also looking forward to more types of business.

“We have a couple of packages like a shop local package where they can order dinner and we’re re-activating our brewery package now that those are open. So you can kind of be a tourist in your own city. And we’re actually really hopeful again for our golf packages and golf season starting because that was a big thing for Medicine Hat last year and the hotels and courses did well with those packages,” Ammann added.

A decision on the government’s Step 3 will be made after at least three weeks to assess the spread of COVID-19.

Potential restriction easing for that step includes banquet and community halls, conference centres, and hotels.