Okanagan ski resort forecasting financial hit from highway closures
Global News
A spokesperson for Big White Ski Resort said there’s already been 70-plus Christmas and New Year’s Eve cancellations because highway closures.
A ski resort in B.C.’s Okanagan region is forecasting a major financial hit stemming from last week’s flooding.
With the Coquihalla Highway closed for an indefinite period of time because of multiple washouts, travellers from the Lower Mainland are now facing longer routes to the Southern Interior.
And that’s assuming current travel restrictions on severely damaged highways in B.C. — like the Trans-Canada Highway in the Fraser Valley — will be lifted in the near future.
“It’s a disaster,” Michael J. Ballingall, senior vice-president of Big White Ski Resort near Kelowna, said of the Coquihalla being closed.
“It’s millions of dollars of cancellations. It is the worst thing that we could possibly face this time of year. And the big thing is the uncertainty: People don’t know.
“They’ve been told do not travel and they’re phoning (to cancel reservations at Big White).”
Ballingall said for Interior mountains, like Big White, SilverStar, Apex, Sun Peaks and Revelstoke, “our lifeline is Vancouver and the Lower Mainland. That’s our No. 1 market in the world.”
According to Ballingall, to date, there have been more than 70 Christmas and New Year’s Eve cancellations due to highway closures.
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