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Destination BC Bulletin 03: COVID-19
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Dream now, #exploreBClater.
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BC's Action Plan - Latest Updates
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The BC COVID-19 Action Plan focuses on services to protect British Columbians and ensure our province is best positioned to effectively respond to the pandemic, including economic recovery. Learn more about the support and resources available in BC on the government's COVID-19 Provincial Support and Information page.
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On April 2, Premier John Horgan announced a new Economic Recovery Task Force, which will bring together leaders from business, labour, First Nations and not-for-profits to help ensure the Province’s economic response to COVID-19 is effective and responsive to the needs of British Columbians.
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On April 1, The Province of British Columbia and BC Hydro announced the COVID-19 Relief Fund, which will waive charges for hard-hit small businesses for up to three months, providing some immediate help to those most in need.
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In partnership with Small Business BC, the Province has also created an excellent financial resource: COVID-19 Supports for Businesses in BC. This handy PDF includes a wide range of government and private sector supports for businesses in British Columbia.
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Destination BC's COVID-19 Response
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Destination BC is here to support you, and we are doing everything we can in partnership with provincial and federal government, industry partners, and Health Authorities to monitor the impact of COVID-19 on BC and our tourism industry.
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We are working closely with our partners in the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture to develop recommendations for the tourism industry within the Province’s $1.5 billion that has been earmarked for economic recovery as part of the BC Government’s COVID-19 Action Plan.
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As part of this process, we are receiving significant input and advice from the Tourism Industry Association of BC, the BC DMOA, BC Hotel Association, Regional DMOs, sector associations and many other business groups. Please keep up your outreach efforts, and in particular, ensure you are connecting with the Tourism Industry Association of BC, who continues to voice the advice and concerns of industry and advocate on your behalf.
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Help prevent non-essential travel and keep our communities safe by encouraging travelers to #exploreBClater
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Messaging Guidance for BC Tourism
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We are currently in the early Response phase of our three-phased recovery campaign for the tourism industry—Response, Recovery, Resilience. During this phase, we are providing weekly messaging guidance to industry to rally our collective voice in supporting the health and safety of our province. The Messaging Guidance for April 2-April 8 has a series of images, messages, and a video (see next story) you can easily share with your network.
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On Tuesday, we posted a new #exploreBClater video, encouraging us all to do our part to stay in, and dream of later. Continue to support the #exploreBClater messaging by sharing our video with your networks on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn. The more of us who share the sentiment, the stronger our voice becomes, and the sooner we can stop the spread of the virus and begin on the road to recovery.
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Destination BC/Garry Henkel
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Starting this week, we will also be posting short, immersive videos focusing on the calming, healing power of BC's nature. These daily clips will give our followers a consistent nature break – allowing people to explore and enjoy our province from home.
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We're also looking for your creative virtual BC experiences. We’ve seen lots of great examples already, like Kicking Horse Mountain Resort’s grizzly bears and #VirtuallyVancouver tours; let's keep working together to create more! Be sure to tag your content with #exploreBClater.
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ITBC Emergency Relief Fund
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In response to the immediate and urgent need of Indigenous tourism businesses, Indigenous Tourism BC is accepting applications for the COVID-19 Emergency Relief Funds Program. The grant, reprofiled from its development and marketing departments, will provide relief to Indigenous tourism businesses. Applications will be open for two weeks from April 2 until April 16.
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Canada’s Economic Response Plan - Latest Updates
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The economic response plan outlines actions to help Canadians and businesses facing hardship as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and help mitigate its negative economic effects.
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On April 1, the federal government announced more details on the new Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy. This will provide a 75% wage subsidy to eligible employers for up to 12 weeks, retroactive to March 15, 2020. Eligible employers can apply through the Canada Revenue Agency’s My Business Account portal as well as a web-based application. Make sure you are ready to apply.
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On April 1, further details were also released about the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB). The CERB will provide $500 a week for up to 16 weeks, to those who stopped working for reasons related to COVID-19 or are eligible for Employment Insurance regular or sickness benefits. Applications open on April 6—however you can get ready to apply now.
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Other federal supports for small businesses facing impacts of COVID‑19 include: the new Canada Emergency Business Account, the new Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Loan and Guarantee program, and deferring all GST/HST payments until June.
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BC MindReader 'Pulse Checks'
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The BC Chamber of Commerce is reaching out to BC's business community every two weeks with short MindReader surveys. By collecting and providing in-depth information to government, from businesses of all sizes, sectors and regions across British Columbia, the evolving needs of businesses will be best represented as the situation unfolds. Join MindReader to hear about the next survey.
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Job Opportunities via go2HR
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go2HR has a solution to help tourism and hospitality employees facing a shortage of work. Effective immediately, go2HR is allowing healthcare, agriculture, and grocery employers to post their job openings on the go2HR Job Board for free. The goal is to provide a tool for displaced tourism and hospitality workers to find temporary employment quickly.
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Sunshine Coast Tourism Spotlight
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Sunshine Coast Tourism's Supporting Local From Your Couch resource is a great example of keeping local businesses connected to the community for economic and social benefit. Learn more about the community effort on the Sunshine Coast,and make sure you read the Feel Good Stories section at the bottom for some inspiration!
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Tourism Plays Key Role in Community Support
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While we recognize that the majority of business are doing all they can just to stay afloat right now, those with capacity are showing their creativity and community support in a variety of ways. Through these tough times, we can always count on the human spirit to endure, with acts of kindness, innovation and support being displayed right across our industry.
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Phillips Brewing is making face shields for front line workers, and encouraging others to do the same.
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Breweries and Distilleries are producing hand sanitizer for front line workers.
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Township 7 winery and the BC Hospitality Foundation have partnered on the ‘Support, Ship and Sip’ campaign, with proceeds going to hospitality workers facing severe financial distress.
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Accent Inns is offering discounted rates in partnership with the United Way, to essential workers who can’t go home due to contamination concerns (since then, community members have called the inns to offer to pay for those rooms).
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Helijet is offering no charge flights for British Columbia’s health care responders.
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These are just a few of the wonderful ways people are stepping up, and we want to hear more of these stories. We can help to put a bright spotlight on our industry during this dark time. Please share more of these stories with us by sending them to [email protected]
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Destination BC COVID-19 Communications
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We are working hard to provide industry with real-time updates through our COVID-19 resource page. Here you will find federal and provincial information on infection prevention, travel advisories and suspensions, transport and border services, financial and business supports, official Provincial health directives, and more.
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Like many other organizations, we have compiled a list of COVID-19 resources on our page to support employers and employees affected by the downturn in business. This includes actions that the Government of BC and Canada are taking to help businesses.
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We also have an FAQ section on our page. If you have questions that cannot be answered through the various resources on our website and official channels, please send them to: [email protected] and we will work to address them.
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Destination BC is holding weekly calls each Thursday with industry partners from across the province. During these calls, we are sharing facts, trends, and updates from sectors. These calls are a great opportunity to hear more about what we know, including our plans to support industry. Please email [email protected] to participate. The calls will be recorded and made available via our COVID-19 resource page.
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Regular Industry Bulletins
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In an effort to keep industry informed on the fast-moving COVID-19 situation, Destination BC will be sending out these regular bulletins in place of the monthly Directions emails for the foreseeable future. Please encourage your network to subscribe to our newsletter, and feel free to forward these emails to your colleagues and friends. Past bulletins can be viewed in our newsletter archives.
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Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn for more COVID-19 updates as it relates to BC tourism.
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