Tuesday June 15, 2021 | VICTORIA, BC
by Mary P Brooke, Editor | Island Social Trends
Today June 15, 2021 is a big day for everyone around BC, in some way or another. Today is the first day of the Step 2 BC economic reopening of various types of activities around the province.
People are still to wear masks indoors where physical distancing cannot be maintained or if ventilation is uncertain. But people can gather indoors and outdoors, including in restaurants and at sporting events. See Step 2 profile here.
The province’s four-step reopening is a cautious way of moving forward after 16 months of restrictions during now three phases of the COVID-19 pandemic in BC (March 2020 to May 2021). Steps forward are not carved in stone, as they depend upon rates of immunization being high enough, and rates of hospitalization and death being low enough. In fact, yesterday, Premier John Horgan suggested not everyone will want to go at the same pace.
Tourism industry busts loose:
But the tourism sector — hardest hit of all economic sectors during the pandemic (not just in BC but around the world) — is making a big splash to reopen as quickly as possible. Before Premier Horgan had even finished making his announcement about Step 2 yesterday, BC Ferries had their reopening statement out to media and their website crashed due to customer inquiry overload.
Today right on day one of the Step 2 reopening, there was a joint statement just before noon, issued by the BC Tourism Minister, along with reps from the Tourism Industry Association, BC Hotel Association, BC Regional Tourism Secretariat, and Destination BC. That statement can be summarized as: go travel!
Spending by BC residents within BC won’t match international travel, but it’s a start from the tourism sector’s perspective.
From a BC resident perspective, not everyone will be eager to get up and go mix and mingle with strangers after being physically distanced for 16 months. But those who do travel to explore their broader community, region and province will probably find it more enjoyable than when international visitors crowd the scene.
Destination BC offers guidance for businesses within the tourism sector.
Here are the BC four steps (BC government links):
- Step 1: Complete
- We are in Step 2
- Step 3: Earliest start date July 1
- Step 4: Earliest start date September 7
===== RELATED (articles by Island Social Trends):
BC Premier suggests everyone will want to take the reopening at their own pace (June 14, 2021)
Sooke Region Museum opens its Sooke Night Market for another season (June 13, 2021)
