Tourism

Clouds of smoke and smog might have obscured the view but didn’t deter too many adrenaline-seekers from ziplining across the Ottawa River this weekend, operators say.

While the head of the Tourism Industry Association of Canada warns that businesses are struggling to stay afloat under a pile of debt and a lack of overseas visitors, at least one local tourism operator seems to be bucking the trend.

A growing wave of intensification near LRT stations in Ottawa’s east end is poised to continue with a plan to build a hotel near the Taylor Creek Business Park in Orléans.

Small businesses and tourism operators in Ottawa are seeing visitors cancel tours and avoid sightseeing around the city amid lingering clouds of smoke and poor air quality from wildfires burning in Ontario and Quebec. 

Ross Meredith, the general manager of the Westin Ottawa and the Delta Ottawa City Centre hotels, said he thinks it will “probably take a few years” for the Ottawa tourism sector to see pre-COVID levels of overseas visitor spending.

As director of communications for Ottawa Tourism, Jantine Van Kregten spent 20 years showing off the best of the capital city.

In an email to OBJ on Monday, Group Germain’s vice-president of operations, Hugo Germain, said the Quebec-based hotel chain is still working with the Ottawa International Airport Authority on a proposal to build a 180-room Alt Hotel that would be attached to the airport terminal.

Ottawa's airport authority is projecting that 5.6 million passengers will use the city's international terminal by 2030, up from three million last year.

With union members still out on picket lines in full force, Bar Robo owner Scott May says he’s currently enjoying “far and away” the busiest week at his downtown coffee, cocktail and live music venue since the pandemic began more than three years ago.

A week into the federal public service strike, the owner of a small tourism company on Sparks Street says the picketing currently underway downtown will be “devastating” to his business if it continues.