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March 12 marked one year since the first COVID-19 case was reported in Saskatchewan.
Over the next week, 980 CJME and 650 CKOM will bring you stories from across the province reflecting on the past year.
Today, we see how people navigated travel restrictions and explored their own communities the past year.
Ashlyn George has made a living travelling to faraway places.
As a travel writer, George is used to sudden changes and derailed plans during her adventures to more than 60 countries and seven continents, as detailed on her website The Lost Girl Guide.
Years of travel hiccups and wayward exploits weren’t able to prepare her for the uncertainty of COVID-19 arriving in Saskatchewan.
“(There was) the unexpected and then obviously the unknown of what was going to happen,” George said. “I was watching all these changes happen minute by minute online and then thinking about what that meant for me as a travel writer.”
Accepting that her upcoming trip to Quebec was being cancelled, George decided to lean on her experience as a Saskatchewanderer — a government initiative dating back to 2011 where one applicant is chosen to travel Saskatchewan and share stories through blogs and videos — to see as much of the province as possible.
“I’ve always been passionate about travelling locally and I stand by the statement that there are just as many amazing things to see and do here in Saskatchewan as you can see and do in other countries,” George said.
“You don’t always have to cross borders for amazing adventures.”
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With borders closing across the world and interprovincial travel discouraged, George was left with no other option than to see the hidden treasures in Saskatchewan — and she wasted no time getting to work.
From winter camping at Lac La Ronge, a hotel holiday in Saskatoon with her mom, hiking to Nistowiak Falls, or sleeping in a luxurious converted grain bin, George was able to explore familiar spots in new ways or be pleasantly surprised about new options available.
“We’re all local to where we live. We live there, we aren’t tourists there. The one cool thing about the pandemic is it forced people to be a tourist in their own backyard,” George said.
“People really realized how amazing their own backyard could be.”
George wasn’t the only one, either.
Jonathan Potts, executive director of marketing and communications at Tourism Saskatchewan, said outdoor adventures were the main draw this year.
“They realized they couldn’t gather in large groups and maybe do some of the things they would usually do, so they went camping,” Potts said.
Park entry permits at provincial parks were up by 28 per cent in 2020, which wasn’t just a summer phenomenon, either.
“Skiing, snowshoeing, snowmobiling — a lot of our rural and resort accommodations actually saw an uptick for this time of the year,” Potts said.
Sara Gullacher certainly noticed the increased traffic this summer.
She and her husband, Kelly, were finalizing their purchase of Besnard Lake Lodge, roughly 400 kilometres north of Saskatoon right as the pandemic made its way to Saskatchewan.
As a full-time nurse, Gullacher was beginning to panic as she prepared to move to casual hours in advance of operating the fishing lodge for the summer. Not only was she facing lost work for the next six months, now her children were out of school.
“We were planning on our income from the lodge,” Gullacher said of her initial worries, but as spring moved along, so did the possibility of opening on time and operating for a full season.
“It was a blessing in disguise because our four children were then out of school in April, so we were able to, as a family, run the fishing camp together.”
For much of the spring, outbreaks up north closed roads to local traffic only, but just as the ice was coming off the lake, the travel restrictions were lifting.
Once the roads opened, traffic was steady.
“We were full pretty much the whole summer through,” Gullacher said. “We saw more people from Saskatchewan, first-timers (and) lots of families coming up.”
When there is anxiety and stress in every direction, the peace and quiet of northern Saskatchewan turned out to be what plenty of people wanted.
Besnard Lake Lodge had one of its busiest years, even without international travellers making their way up north. (Besnard Lake Lodge/Facebook)
“The majority of clients that came through the door were just happy to be away from the everyday reminders of COVID,” Gullacher said. “It was nice to have more local people because now they’re returning again this year because they had a great time up north and it was a bit of an escape.”
Even with all of the local support, the figures from Tourism Saskatchewan are grim.
Tourism expenditures were down roughly $1.17 billion — or over 50 per cent — from the just over $2 billion spent in 2019.
Hotel occupancy and accommodations in Regina and Saskatoon saw a 30 per cent decrease compared to the rest of the province.
The average hotel occupancy rate for Saskatchewan was 32.4 per cent in 2020.
Travel was also predictably poor at airports. Saskatoon and Regina had an 85 per cent decrease in arrival passengers.
The silver lining is how the lost year quickly became the year of the “staycation.”
“It was a massive shift from what we expected to what occurred,” Potts said.
“We weathered the storm,” he added. “I think that Saskatchewan character has helped to carry a lot of the tourism industry through the past year.”
Travellers like George are happy to see more people see different parts of Saskatchewan and what it can offer, and with a tourism rebound expected to take anywhere from two to five years, the local support is more vital than ever.
“Travelling is a little more complicated now, but it’s still safe to do if you’re doing it in the right way,” George said.