The hotel industry is not only losing when it comes room occupancy, but on scheduled events as well.

Speaking on The Jeff Andreas Show, The Chair of the BC Hotel Association says some of that business is simply lost for good. Bryan Pilbeam says its hoping to see a lot of conferences deferred, but not all events have that luxury.

“We all know of people who were either looking to have their wedding here locally or go down to a place like Mexico or somewhere as a destination that aren’t just going to wait another year or whenever to make those plans again, so may have eloped and done a quiet wedding or marriage and we’ve heard of those people and I know those people. So some of that will be lost, some of that we hope will be deferred.”

Pilbeam says even trying to reschedule these events is a bit of a challenge since we don’t know what the future looks like. “But we don’t know what conferences, or conventions, or trade shows, or weddings quite honestly will look like in the next year I would say until we’ve got a vaccination for this. What’s the comfort level going to be for people and will it be small groups with all sorts of Zoom videos of different places and different settings. You know, the world is changing and it’s going to continue to change.”

Pilbeam says it is a lot of what if scenarios right now and there is a desperate need for more government help. “Money that’s just never going to come through the doors of businesses quite honestly and the desperate need for liquidity and just to keep money and business going because there’s going to be an awful lot of people that just won’t be able to continue with their businesses whether it be in the hotel industry or restaurants or many other commercial enterprises just sadly will cease to exist and just become bankrupt.”