As the temperature drops and snow is on the horizon, local tourism officials say climate change is making it increasingly difficult to accurately forecast what winter has in store for Ottawa’s hospitality industry.
“Last winter had some bumpiness to it,” said Ross Meredith, general manager of the Westin Ottawa and Delta Ottawa City Centre hotels. “The disappointment of the number of days we had the canal (skateway) open, which we know is a focal point. From a marketing, PR perspective, when the message got out that the canal was struggling, that put some brakes on the drive market’s interest in coming to Ottawa.”
Meredith said it’s anyone’s guess whether this winter will follow a similar pattern.
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For one, visitors tend to make more last-minute bookings in the colder months, with most hotel rooms being reserved less than 30 days in advance. And those decisions, he said, are influenced by a number of outside factors, including weather conditions and whether activities like skiing and skating are possible.
The uncertainty around the season itself, combined with the increased volatility of the winter conditions, means tourism leaders are trying to put safeguards in place.
“As we turn the corner to 2025, I think there is a recognition amongst all the tourism players that we need to broaden the offerings during the winter season, so that we’re not solely or primarily focused on the canal, and we’re engaging more partnerships and reasons to visit Ottawa in January to March,” Meredith said.
Growth is the goal for upcoming season, says Ottawa Tourism
After several years of pandemic recovery, tourism is now in “growth mode,” said Jérôme Miousse, director of public affairs at Ottawa Tourism.
“The recovery from COVID is somewhat over,” he said. “Right now we’re looking at growing the amount of visitors in all aspects, meaning both independent business travellers, which are still lagging, and also a lot of leisure, which is what our marketing efforts have been geared towards.”
Last winter held steady, despite wet conditions and a short Rideau Canal skateway season. In fact, Miousse said warmer temperatures sometimes brought more visitors in on last-minute trips.
“Our efforts have been geared towards getting people to come to Ottawa, especially from our drive-in markets, which are a great way to draw visitation for a quick weekend getaway,” he said.
“Those are often last-minute decisions, and that’s where the weather intervenes. If it’s a nice weekend, you might want to drive to Ottawa and do some fun stuff. We’ve been seeing sometimes in the past few winters that some of those warmer weekends in the winter draw visitation, as opposed to a super cold snap where people might reconsider and want to stay in.”
He added that 2024’s numbers were similar to the previous year, with demand slightly higher during warmer weather, but still lower that record-setting numbers in 2019.
“We’re hopeful for a better winter season in 2025, and are confident that the World Juniors Championships in December and January will be a significant contributor to kick off the season,” he said.
Tourism leaders diversifying attractions, building resilience
According to the City of Ottawa, climate change has led to warmer, wetter winters and more unpredictable weather, a trend that is likely to continue. A report outlining climate projections for the National Capital Region from the city and the National Capital Commission predicts that warming is anticipated across all seasons, that the timing of seasons will shift, and that extreme weather events, including heat waves and storms, will be more common. Rainfall will also increase, but there will be less snowfall and a shorter snow season.
It’s a shift that’s already causing challenges for the local tourism industry.
For nearly 700 days in 2022 and 2023, the Rideau Canal Skateway, one of the capital’s biggest winter attractions, was unable to open, as warm weather prevented the ice from freezing. This past season, the skateway opened for just 10 days between Jan. 21 and Feb. 25.
“Climate change is absolutely a growing factor for destination organizations like ours – not only here in Ottawa, but globally,” Catherine Callary, vice-president of destination development for Ottawa Tourism, told OBJ.
The attractions most impacted by climate change are those that rely on cold weather or snowy conditions, said Callary.
In an email to OBJ, NCC spokesperson Benoît Desjardins said the NCC is “crossing its fingers” for colder weather this winter to allow visitors to experience the skateway once more.
At the same time, with recent winters proving Mother Nature unreliable, he said the NCC has been working with partners on ways to adapt.
“In light of climate change and milder winters, our priority these past several years has been to adapt our operations,” he said. “Our ongoing partnership with Carleton University is helping us identify strategies to adapt skateway operations to the impacts of climate change. Some strategies have already been implemented, like the use of lighter equipment on the ice and advanced techniques to allow us to create ice earlier in the season.”
Other strategies include flooding the canal earlier to build up the ice faster, and weather and water temperature monitoring.
Desjardins said the organization is also analyzing data and the results of its pilot projects with Carleton to see what can be learned for the future.
According to Callary at Ottawa Tourism, the skateway is an example of a local winter attraction that has very little built-in resilience due to its reliance on weather conditions. But not all of the city’s offerings are this way, she added.
While warmer weather may disrupt popular outdoor winter activities – from skating and skiing to snowshoeing and snowboarding – new technologies allow rinks, trails and slopes to be maintained for longer throughout the season, even if weather conditions are not ideal.
Though the hope is that strong measures will be able to counteract the effects of climate change over the long term, Callary said organizations such as Ottawa Tourism need to step up in the interim to ensure the city has something to offer tourists year-round, even if there’s less snow on the ground.
Winterlude, for example, has made big strides in that direction.
“The skateway and Winterlude are very big winter tourism drivers, no question, but Winterlude itself has a little bit more resilience built into it because some of the events are indoors,” Callary said.
“You get people who are still coming and able to experience Winterlude – they’re just doing it inside. And kudos to Canadian Heritage for over the years recognizing that climate change was going to be a factor and making sure there was a diverse array of experiences for people to have.”
Also this winter, the ByWard Market will introduce a new winter market to bring more activity into the area during the off-season.
“We’re starting to really lean into our potential as a year-round destination,” Zach Dayler, executive director of the ByWard Market District Authority, told OBJ in October. “I think we’ve done a pretty good job building our programming through the summer … but typically and historically, the offering in winter in ByWard has been limited to a certain extent.”
He added that the one advantage of the warmer winter season is that visitors are more comfortable going outside if they aren’t fighting their way through snowstorms and icy conditions.
“We actually saw last year that our January numbers were some of the highest visitations all year,” Dayler said. “It was relatively warm and more and more people were inclined to go out and take in the sunshine. The need is clear. And I think each year investing in the winter market, it will grow and become that anchor for the winter months.”
As tourism leaders look to the future, Callary said bigger conversations need to be had about their role in addressing climate change issues. But if things continue to worsen, hard decisions will need to be made.
“It’s still dependent on Mother Nature,” she said. “There’s no way around that … we (need to) start to have conversations as a destination and as a community around whether it’s time now to start looking at things like the skateway from other perspectives. Does it need to be a skateway, or can there be other experiences building into the canal in the winter time that would draw visitation, that would still be an iconic, classic Ottawa experience that doesn’t involve skating? I think that’s the next frontier for our destination.”
