By Henok Alemneh, 2nd year MDP student
One of my major tasks during my field placement with the Pimachiowin Aki Corporation was writing a business plan for an Indigenous owned and controlled tourism facility and experience in the Pimachiowin Aki World Heritage Site (PA). The time we are in is probably not the best time to start a tourism business. It is rather a time when many of those who are already in it are being severely impacted by the COVID-19 induced health and economic crisis. Some funding organizations have also shifted their focus towards recovery and stimulus grant funding for existing businesses affected by the crisis. However, I found it to be a good time to plan for a potential establishment of a business that could possibly be in a better position to cope in case of a future crisis like the one we are in. Planning amidst this pandemic allowed me to practically see some of the business risks that come with it. There is a lot that a potential business can learn from the way those who are already being impacted are dealing with the crisis. Communities such as the Pimachiowin Aki First Nations, who are home to a World Heritage Site with immense cultural and natural tourism potentials, can think of various innovative and strategic ways to minimize impacts due to similar potential challenges in the future.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Indigenous tourism sector in Canada was showing enhanced growth and the sector also had a significant economic footprint in Manitoba. The trend showed a promising future then, but nowadays the industry is pretty much at a standstill. Tourism by its nature is largely dependent on travel from one place to another and on the people-to-people and people-to-environment interactions involved with it. Such characteristic of the industry has placed it among the most impacted by COVID-19. International and local travel have largely been restricted for months and people have been asked and, in some cases, required to stay away from each other. Although some places are relaxing restrictions recently, we are also seeing some places rolling back restrictions due to the recent spike in infections. Generally, it is not clearly known when things could fully go back to normal as that may depend on the availability of vaccine and or therapeutics.
Regardless of uncertainties looming over its future, many of us, based on tourism’s history of bouncing back after crisis, hope that it will eventually recover. But we don’t know when that will happen. The various ways governments, associations and others are trying to support and speed up the recovery also give some hope in addition to the hope for availability of a vaccine. In the business planning project, we anticipated that people would most likely prefer to travel within their region, especially in the early stages of tourism’s recovery and that appears to be the case with places such as Pinawa recently experiencing an influx of Manitoba visitors. Government agencies such as Destination Canada are also encouraging interprovincial domestic travel.
Drive-in tourists would be targeted due to the anticipation that many people may replace their international travel plans with road trips within Canada. It is also expected that going forward many visitors will be more cautious about hygiene and social distancing. Therefore, the proposed business has been planned to operate in accordance with up-to-date public health guidelines. The economic challenges may also make visitors more price sensitive for some time. As many students are not having the opportunity to travel during their school holidays, we may also see a growth in domestic friends and family travelers. The business planning activity has been undertaken with these and related expectations in mind. The bottom line is that the COVID crisis would bring changes in the market. The business planning project thus required planning and preparing to navigate the new changes in the market environment. In order to minimize potential damages from such crisis in the future, the proposed business would put in place crisis planning and management strategies. Product diversification and creative marketing would be some of the focus areas both in the short-term and long-term. Because dependency on tourism may result in a significant impact during a crisis like COVID, it would also be crucial for communities such as PA First Nations to diversify their economies. The proposed business could be launched after COVID-19 is fully subdued, but the lessons obtained during the planning stage should be carried along as another crisis may happen at any time.
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