(JOHN MCDONALD / iNFOnews.ca)
August 13, 2020 - 2:40 PM
Tourism Kelowna is launching a new on-line survey to see how willing Central Okanagan residents are to welcome out-of-town visitors this fall in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
It asks how willing local residents are to welcome visitors from, first of all, the Thompson and Okanagan regions. The questions expand by geographic degrees to residents from other B.C. communities. What about western provinces? All Canadians? What about Americans. Answers can range from very comfortable to very uncomfortable.
The survey is similar to another survey Tourism Kelowna did June 3 to 6. That questionnaire found that 79 per cent of the 616 people who responded were comfortable or very comfortable in welcoming visitors from the Thompson and Okanagan regions, and 68 per cent felt the same way about residents from other parts of B.C.
Those feelings switched to 78 per cent being uncomfortable to very uncomfortable about visitors from the United States – with 57.5 per cent being very uncomfortable.
The new survey notes that the number of visitors in the fall is just over half the number who come in the summer.
The survey also asks about plans by local residents to take trips in the coming weeks.
The first survey found 64.4 per cent had either booked a trip in B.C. or were likely to travel within the province but only 19.7 per cent were likely to travel outside the province.
The new survey can be taken here.
Results of the first survey can be seen here.
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