Despite the rain, or perhaps because of it, outdoor tourist sites like the Salmon Valley Campground have seen great visitor numbers.

By Tommy Osborne

PG Tourists

Tourist sites reporting strong numbers, despite rainy summer

Jul 23, 2025 | 4:24 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – Despite the cooler, rainy summer — or perhaps because of it — outdoor tourist sites have report great visitor turnout. The Huble Homestead Historic Site has seen 600 more visitors this year compared to the same time last year, while the Salmon Valley Campground has noted a 10% increase from last year. Some may think the cooler, rainy days would be a deterrent for outdoor sites, but the weather has instead been a benefit.

“Huble Homestead (Historic Site) is an outdoor museum and open air museum, so we’re often at the mercy of the weather, especially the temperature. There’s not a whole lot of shade at Huble Homestead, we definitely don’t have air conditioning, so we find that visitors are more likely to, number one: come out and visit us, and number two: have a good time while they’re here when the temperatures are in the low 20s,” said the Site’s Executive Director Krystal Leason.

“People get to have campfires, I think that’s one of the biggest things people are really excited about this year. Typically for a lot of years in the past, we’ve had a month where we haven’t had those campfires and I have not heard anybody complain,” added Bobbi Carpino, owner of Salmon Valley Campground.

The lack of smoke in particular has been great, such as the aforementioned lack of campfire bans, and the obvious benefit of not breathing in smoke.

BCHL Playoffs

Langley's goalie steals game one over Spruce Kings

9h ago

ckpg news special

The Resource Reality

Apr 03, 2026

Crime

Paramedics injured after object thrown through ambulance window

Apr 03, 2026

“It’s just more enjoyable, it’s healthier, and we get a lot better pictures. We love taking pictures of our beautiful site, and it’s much nicer when there’s not a ton of smoke. It’s better for our staff’s health and our visitors as well, so it’s been a nice reprieve to be honest. I’ve really enjoyed it so far this summer,” Leason said.

Another possible factor in the visitor increase could be strained relations with the U.S., as there has been a push among Canadians to stay local and support Canadian. And it’s possible it’s not just Canadians avoiding the U.S., as Carpino noted her campground has seen a steady amount of European visitors. However, these bookings were reserved as far back as November so it’s still too early to definitively say if an increase in European visitors is due to anti-American sentiment globally or not.

“We’ve seen an increase (in international visitors) this year. We see a lot of, German, Dutch, Swiss who come here. I think our Australians, they love it here too. So it’s a good combination of a lot of that. Europeans are still loving it, especially those Europeans who want that wilderness experience and that Canadian experience,” Carpino said.

The strained relations between the two countries has also resulted in increasing costs due to U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war, which could be another reason many are choosing to stay local.

“We’re certainly seeing a lot more locals staying local, iit could just be the cost, right? Things have really increased over the last little bit here, and it’s more affordable to stay local, not have to travel as far,” Carpino said.

“We noticed this a few years ago when gas prices really started rocketing up and people were encouraged to stay, sort of staycations. We noticed a lot more local people coming out, and I think that’s similar this year. […] People are exploring Canada, they’re exploring their province, they’re exploring their community more instead of going overseas or to the United States,” Leason added.

While the increase in visitors has been great, it hasn’t been all great news, as those same rising costs have put a strain on the businesses and customers both.

“Attendance may be up, but our revenue is actually pretty much on par with last year, which obviously means that people are are pinching their pennies a bit more,” Leason said.

“We’ve seen how much we have to now charge for meals at the barbecue, or candy, or what have you. This is a shock to us too, because prices have gone up, fuel has gone up, minimum wage has gone up, all of our costs have really gone up,” Leason continued.

Even though rising costs have been a challenge, the rise in visitors and a push to stay local, on top of the weather, has combined to help keep these outdoor tourist sites operating at a strong level.

Local news. Delivered. Free. Subscribe to our daily news wrap and get our top local stories delivered to your inbox every evening.