Tourism is recovering in Jasper National Park, but the influx of visitors to the Mountain Park is not what it was before the 2024 forest fire, business owners say.
“I feel it is slower than normal,” said Robert Logan, co -owner of Jasper Motorcycle Tours, in an interview last week.
He is one of several business owners who lost his brick and mortar spaces and are now working in an emerging town in a parking lot in Connaught Drive.
“I judge the streets of Jasper in parking places and if people carry bags of stores where they buy gifts and things. And I realized that there is a little fall in those numbers.”
Logan said he expects more tourists in Jasper soon, now that Calgary’s stampede is over, including some that will want to see the sequelae of the forest fire.
“People are curious, you know, disaster tourism,” he said.
But Jasper lacks places for people to spend the night.
Jasper tourism estimates that there are about 20 percent less accommodations this season: hotel rooms, inns, short -term accommodations and campsites.
Two motels in the town’s place, Mount Robson Inn and Maligne Lodge, were destroyed in the fire.
Tekarra Lodge and Jasper House Bungalows on the 93A highway were also destroyed. Alpine Village lost some of his cabins and is now rebuilding.
Only 30 percent of Wapiti camp sites are available this year.
Mike Day, a member of the Jasper Tourism Board and the owner of Evil Dave’s Grill, said the decrease in accommodation helps explain the fall in visitors.
“Twenty percent for us, based on the evacuation of last year, that could be … 4,000 people,” Day told CBC News last week. “That is many seats in restaurants and there are many heads and beds that we simply have.”
Annaja Davis, a Jasper Whitewater rafting company guide, said it has been quite calm compared to previous years.
“Usually, when you get here, the streets are full of shoulder to shoulder,” he said from the store in Connaught Drive.
“It’s like, maybe 100 people are on the street. Not like 1,000. Much slower.”
Day said that the hospitality industry in general has hired less workers this year, because it is more difficult to secure homes for workers outside the city since the city lost 800 residences in the fire.
Visitors support
On a sunny day in July, the sidewalks along Connaught Drive may not have been full, but some tourists were there to show support to the city.
Christine Kilb, a visitor who returned from BC, camped at the Wabasso camp last July when the fire began. It was among the 25,000 people evacuated in the National Park.
“I am proud to be able to come here and camp and enjoy the city,” Kilb told CBC News last week. “It’s beautiful. Even with burned forests, it is still beautiful.”
Sandra Beresh, a Hamilton visitor, was in Jasper for the first time. She didn’t know what to expect, but he didn’t hesitate to make the trip either.
“My husband and I wanted to support Jasper and we are happy to have done it. It’s beautiful.”
It was also a revelation, Beresh said in an interview last week.
“When I was driving and saw the devastation of fires, my heart broke. It was really so sad: people lost their homes, wildlife and everything.”
Future of tourism
Tourism Jasper is appealing to residents in Edmonton and Calgary to visit in the low season.
They have calculated that every year about 800,000 people from Edmonton and Calgary do not visit the national parks in Alberta.
“So we are trying to be much more creative about how we are going to attract people this winter,” said Day. “[With] A small supplication for the help of our friends in Edmonton. “
Logan, rebuilding his store that used to be in Patricia Drive, is optimistic that things are on the right path.
“I hope Jasper returns. I can see what happens every day, new things and be rebuilt,” he said. “And I see that the trees become bigger every day.”
