Smoke Affects Tourist Numbers Again

Oct 26, 2018 | 3:05 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – Each year Tourism Prince George keeps track of their tourist numbers throughout the summer. This year they saw quite a drop in the number of people visiting the city.

Tourism PG defines a tourist as someone who doesn’t have an address in Prince George but stays in the city for at least a night or spends money while passing through.

This past summer tourist numbers in Prince George fell 22 percent from roughly 15 thousand in 2017 to 12 thousand in 2018. The community played host to 10 thousand evacuees in the summer months of 2017 and only hosted roughly 4 thousand this year. 

Manager of Marketing and Communications for Tourism PG, Annie Doran believes the smoke and fires had a large impact on the tourist numbers. 

“I think that people decided to stay home just because they were worried about the fires affecting their homes. I think that people stayed home because of the very heavy smoke that we had in Prince George and so it deterred people a little bit,” says Doran. 

At West Lake Campground, the numbers went the opposite way. Owner, Wendy South says the numbers at the campground doubled this summer from last and can’t wait to see what next season has in store. South says the city did a great job housing the evacuees but was happy to fill up her sites with all of the trailers.