Wildfires across Canada this year have burned a larger area than ever before, displacing residents in more remote areas and causing air pollution in major cities such as Toronto and New York.
Canada’s wildfire season runs from May to September. By the end of June, it had already surpassed its known historic record for total area burned by wildfires in one season, which was 88,000 square kilometers. That number is now at more than 178,000, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.
These fires have had an effect on hotel occupancy across the country, as hundreds of thousands of residents were displaced from their homes and fled to hotels in safety.
Laura Baxter, director of hospitality analytics in Canada for CoStar Group, said over three weeks in which there were fires in the Northwest Territories, hotel occupancy in Edmonton and Calgary were 25% to 30% higher than the same time last year.
Adversely, occupancies in Kelowna, British Columbia, dropped about 30% year over year in mid-August when fires forced residents out and a travel ban was put in place to bar any entry.
The extent of damage to properties is still being realized, but a few properties — including the REO Rafting, Glamping & Yoga Resort in Boston Bar, British Columbia; and Lake Okanagan Resort in Kelowna, British Columbia — have been damaged or destroyed by wildfires, Baxter said.
Listen to the podcast above for more on the impact of wildfires on the hotel industry in Canada.