The Kamloops Accommodation Association says things are looking a lot more like normal for the local hotel industry after a ‘terrible’ past couple of years.

President Angela Tasker says the past two tourist seasons saw ‘next to nobody’ staying at Kamloops-area hotels because of the pandemic. But with restrictions eased, she says the industry is getting back on its feet.

“Summer is a typically busier time in Kamloops,” she said.

“We’ve got a lot of tourists that stop here. We’re a nice stopping point between Vancouver and say the Rockies so, I think that’s expected and this isn’t really the time of year where you see a lot of business travel, that type of thing, so they kind of meld together.”

Speaking on the NL Morning News, Tasker says it isn’t just demand from tourists though this summer.

“This is tourist season and there’s more pent up demand this year, no doubt, but we’ve still got a base of business from the pipelines workers, there’s still some of that happening in town, “she said.

“I mean that drove it up for sure but that a great thing in my opinion.”

Tasker says while Kamloops hotels almost at full capacity, there are still some rooms available – mostly during the week. Her advice is to still book as far in advance as possible as those rooms are also filling up as well.

As far as labour shortages go, Tasker says hoteliers have been getting by with some employees having to multi task, such as front desk people also doubling as room cleaners in some cases.

“We’ve had two years prior where most hotels have had debt and big time losses because of COVID so we have to work forward and gain occupancy and rates to cover those losses,” she said.

“Our staff are working full time – more than full time at this point – which also is better than when we had people not in the hotel and no one working.”