The possibility of restricting out of province travelers into British Columbia is not welcome news for Kamloops hoteliers.

President of the Kamloops Accommodation Association, Tyson Andrykew, says the pandemic has crippled his industry. He thinks bad behaviour is a bigger cause of transmission of COVID-19, more than travelers coming into the province.

“By and large there hasn’t been large scale proven case counts from tourism related businesses. Obviously there’s been a lot of flight exposure but those seem to be somewhat contained to a few cases per flight,” he said.

“It seem like it’s largely tied to individual behaviour and at home gatherings as we’ve seen in the past.

Andrykew, who is also the Vice President of Sales and Operations for Mundi Hotel Enterprises, says he wants to see more dialogue with the provincial government before any decision gets made.

“There hasn’t been any further indication other than what’s been reported on last week. I think most of our associations have got up and written a letter to their MLAs or released it to the media around our feelings towards the proposed ban but hopefully there will be some more stakeholder engagement if ultimately [Premier John Horgan] decides to actually take a serious look at it,” he said.

Speaking on the NL Morning News, Andrykew says he hasn’t yet spoken to the Kamloops area MLAs –  Todd Stone and Peter Milobar.

“Our major representative is the Tourism Association of BC and Canada have taken the lead here. They’re doing what they can to try and make sure that this doesn’t happen,” he said, noting the move could hurt more than the hotel business as it would impact more than just tourists.

“There’s potentially some long term harm as it harms B.C.’s brand of being friendly and open and welcoming environment for tourists even thought there’s not a lot of tourists right now. I think the bigger concern is around business travel, government travel, that sort of thing inter-provincially which is by and large what we’re seeing right now at hotels.”

As for the direct impacts to Kamloops, it would depend on how long the ban would last, if its enacted. Andrykew says there isn’t really a contingency plan right now because everything is so fluid at the moment.

“Right now we’re definitely waiting and seeing. We’re kind of at the mercy of our government officials on this one so hopefully there’s some consultation, we’re allowed to plead our cases to why this shouldn’t occur but we’ll have to wait and see,” he added.

There is no clear timeline for the province to produce its legal opinion on the proposed ban. Asked about the potential for a ban last week, Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, said she would not issue a public health order against inter-provincial travel.

“It’s hard to see how that is feasible in British Columbia, for many reasons,” she said. “Our borders are very different. We have many ways that people can cross, particularly from Alberta.”

Meanwhile Canada’s Chief Medical Health Officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, says stopping non-essential travel would be difficult for B.C. to enforce, noting people in province could reduce COVID-19 transmission by cutting the number of contacts.